


I Have Loved the Stars Too Fondly

by Shusu (Sameshima_Shuzumi)



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alien Gender/Sexuality, Body Modification, Cover Art, Explicit Sexual Content, F/F, Female-Centric, Gen, Historical References, Misses Clause Challenge, Multi, Other, Wordcount: Over 10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 10:27:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2809064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sameshima_Shuzumi/pseuds/Shusu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The essential chemistry: Rose is the catalyst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mautadite](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mautadite/gifts).



> This story was conceived in October and is subject to jossing [we don't own universe, we just live in it]. Many proper names, modern colloquialisms, and gendered pronouns are meant as "translations" from POV / local tongues to English for ease of reading, so may not be precisely indicative. Some aspects may be discomfiting for humans who are used to having bodies, covering much of the "body modification" tag. (I apologize that sweat is mentioned so often; it's not specifically fetishized.) File contains special characters (the font kind too!) History and footnotes are mainly for scope, not a period-piece; apologies if this foils expectations. This porkchop is not perfect.    
>  _To my recipient: I know we don't know each other (obviously!) but I had to say after five minutes of stalking I realized you're into everything I would like if I had the time, and are basically an awesome version of who I wish I could fannishly be. However this story spoke to me in a certain timbre, in a certain slant of light, so none of that comes through. Anyway I just wanted to compliment you on your excellent taste. Happy Yuletide, and keep doing you._   
>  21 February 2016. Edited to add cover art, 540 by 747 resolution. Image composed of stars being born in Rho Ophiuchi (credit [NASA | JPL-Caltech | Harvard-Smithsonian CfA](http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA10181)) overlaid on white vaulted ceiling (credit [Little Visuals](http://littlevisuals.co)). Fonts are P22 Cezanne Regular and Harlow Solid Italic. You may repost _unaltered_. If you're kind enough to link to this fic, please don't forget the content warnings; adult content abounds. Enjoy! 

 

They touch down lightly on the planet which shall not be called Earth for at least ten thousand solar years. It's like every other planet in this classification: indistinct in its chemistry and local fauna and the way it gleans the starlight. They are likewise indistinct. The less solid a Gem's form, the more fluid the relationship to time. Gems might have been on the planet before the latest Thaw; they might have been there before the Moon. These details are as immaterial as they are.

It's easy to overlook the humans scurrying this way and that. Some earthworks and altars are built in their honor. The local fauna always seems to do that. Compared to a Gem sanctum, these constructions are less than insignificant.

Then the Gems are summoned back to the Homeworld.

War has broken out.

When they return, Earth has graduated from backwater to stronghold. Now they are Crystal Gems.

*

To be a Crystal Gem is to be distinct. It was rarely necessary before. Their gems resonate with the secret songs of the universe. When each of them was pure, it was enough to choose a facet and join the dance, to merge with the vibrations of the spheres. Now as their numbers dwindle, a physical form is the easiest way to maintain their integrity. Pearl grumbles that it's the lowest state of energy. Garnet says that's the point. Conservation may make all the difference.

Besides, their enemies are all solid now, hard, sharp, burning, bent on destroying this planet and its star-catchers.

The Crystal Gems need bodies to fight.

Their names are Earth names. They can't pause to grasp the meaning of the word _exile_ , because there are blazing chariots smashing the sanctuaries, and this place to be called Earth is what keeps them going.

*

After a while, it's the four of them.

Garnet still remembers their music. She has to, now that she can see on this scale.

Sometimes she wants to.

Pearl's is gossamer and dew. She used to be a sweeping crescendo. Now she's often pizzicato, intense and sharp and unrelenting. Pearl is the dance. Her forms gather all movements into a focus as precise as the tip of her spear. Renewal is her joy; perfection is her passion. Yet that purity means she's never far removed from her core. When permitted, Garnet kisses her brow like the slightest breath might dislodge her gem.

Brassy Amethyst has been broken and remade so many times that her original form has no name. Garnet never heard anything like Amethyst until the latest century. Amethyst is sensation. She's the whip-crack gap between existing and living. Her lyrics live in vibrant air, not stuck on the page. Amethyst begins at the center and improvises her body by touch, the way Pearl finds hers through perfect form.

Garnet is the million-year guttural grind of tectonic plates. She likes this planet. It's got a snappy beat.

Rose Quartz is the harmony. Without fail she unfolds from a single phrase into a clear pitch-perfect chord. The cosmos may turn inexplicable, but Rose Quartz has a knack for matching its every mystery.

It's Rose Quartz who urges them to mind their physical constructs. If they still dwelled under spires of starlight, if they still slept in the diamond cores of planets, they wouldn't need to know the steps, much less need feet.

Feet are a drag, Amethyst says.

Pearl reluctantly works out the biomechanical calculations, maps out the gravitic functions, and reports what Garnet has already worked out.

On Earth, they need hips to dance.

*

They settle for a time in the Land of Seven Waters, among humans but safely away from the bustle of the Crescent. Amethyst has over-extended again. Garnet needs to recuperate someplace that isn't a volcano, lest she risk another Siberia debacle.

Rose Quartz takes an interest in the humans. This is unsurprising, as she's constantly bringing back local wildlife. She accepts the gifts of woven-fiber garments and wears them often, though she laser-cuts them to let her gem shine out. Pearl is the first she convinces to wear clothes. Garnet follows out of solidarity, and to coax Pearl into donning something that's not armor. Once Garnet gets into it, she takes a liking to the adornments. Bangles and collars suit her, and she doesn't have to change for battle.

For a while there are few battles to be had. They so seldom fuse that Garnet wonders if they're losing their feel for it. Out of boredom Pearl accompanies Rose Quartz to the town, and comes back brimming with ideas for the human settlement. "There could be many more wells, and irrigation, and surely we can do something about their awful sanitation?"

"Gardens," adds Rose Quartz hopefully. She's already had to abandon several.

Garnet shrugs. "I don't see why not." (Literally.)

Pearl overhauls the waterworks. It's more a diversion than to favor the humans; their crude ceramics and plain textiles don't interest her. "It's all so ugly," she remarks once, and that sets off Rose Quartz, who adores every bit of it. Garnet leaves them to their quarrel. They eventually reconcile over plans for a bathing facility, though it's Rose Quartz who always intercedes for the humans.

Garnet's not sure what to make of Rose Quartz's peculiar tastes. She herself ventures out, causing a stir among the humans. That's nothing new. Nor is the orderly infrastructure which speaks to Pearl's guidance. She also marks the baths' resemblance to Pearl's favorite grotto in the Homeworld. This, she'll have to keep eyes on.

Then Garnet hears the first song.

Locals on every world do tend to make things to consecrate them, and this place is no exception. Yet the Gems are not simply the subject of these hymns. They hallow the Gems with new iterations, creating without copying. Garnet asks to hear more. And there it is— an echo of cosmic music. The humans don't know they're doing it. All they do is observe, and the song is so strong that it reverberates within anyone open to feeling it. Garnet halts (the procession halts behind her), and sits under a tree to observe them in return.

She declines to move for a time. One day a young human dares to approach her. She offers up a clay figure: one arm akimbo, hips canted, chin raised. Garnet likes the attitude. "Keep this," she says to the child. Maybe there's something more to the Gems' focus on this world. Garnet resolves to keep eyes on the humans, too.

Amethyst could not care less about the inhabitants. She amuses herself by wandering the wild regions and wrestling every beast she can find. Every time she's in town, she starts playing with the humans' livestock until Pearl encourages her to leave again. Eventually Amethyst brings some animals back for Rose Quartz, who adores every last one, claws and fangs and all. To Pearl's relief, Garnet does put her foot down at this. It's not as though the temple is spacious enough for a menagerie.

By the time they figure out that Amethyst is more damaged than she looks, the summons come again. This time it's not from the Homeworld. Fire smears the sky. Screams fill the air.

Garnet has to double back to grab Rose Quartz and haul her to the temple. She is babbling about the poor humans.

"They'll figure something out," Garnet says. This seems to calm her. A moment later, the temple disengages from the citadel and lifts off into the burning sky.

Rose Quartz wraps her arms around Garnet's neck. "We should draw their fire."

Garnet nods. "Pearl! Fly into the barrage!"

"What?! But the temple—!"

Amethyst clambers on to the control platform and slams her palm down. "Let's gooooo!"

They lurch forward. The structure sinks for a moment against the blasts. Rose Quartz slips off Garnet and restores their shields, while Garnet powers up, leaps, and punches the ceiling for an extra boost. The temple climbs. Better that the Gem-grown structure take fire than the fragile humans below.

The firefight becomes a swarming glow, and then no more than an errant comet, and then blinks out among the stars. Bits of the temple crumble and incinerate in atmospheric re-entry. No physical traces of the Gems are left on the human city.

Walls are rebuilt; fields are replanted. Time will claim those too. A thousand generations later, all that survive are the songs.

Earth is again left behind.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Please insert "approximate" everywhere.)    
>  Last glacial period (colloq. "Last Ice Age") ends 10500 BCE. Earth's Moon formed 4.5 billion years ago. "Earth" referring to the planet 1400 CE (Online Etymology Dictionary)    
>  2600 BCE Mohenjo-Daro (see www.harappa.com/indus/slideindex.html): Siberian Traps?, "Dancing Girl" survives in brass (10.5cm / 4"). 


	2. Chapter 2

 

They don't know that their next return to Earth will be the final one. At least they pick the battlefield this time; Garnet makes sure it's uninhabited. No sooner are their forces gathered when battle finds them like a hurricane on a cay. Pearl is still holding out for more reinforcements, but Rose Quartz can't wait.

"The corruption's spreading too fast! We must move now!" Rose Quartz shouts over the exploding rock and energy blasts. Gem shards are raining upon them. Garnet wants to ask with what army, for how long, and whether Rose Quartz cares that she's given away their position. The look in her eyes stops her cold. Rose Quartz shakes Garnet by the shoulders. For the first time in a long time, Garnet is moved off her feet. "If we lose Earth, we lose the war!"

Rose Quartz gathers her minions and leads the charge.

* * *

After that battle, Garnet never doubted Rose Quartz again.

Time became their companion once more. They tested the warp pads again, and though Rose Quartz ran her fingers over every fissure, she shed no tears. Garnet looked upon the faces of the other three Gems. Her powers made it easy to perceive their energies. Yet even after all those fusions, their thoughts no longer echoed in each other's heads. They were truly separate beings now.

Garnet didn't need any powers to see how haggard they were.

"At least it's Earth," muttered Pearl. "It's not as though their Sun will burn out anytime soon. It may not be so bad."

A spire broke off and impaled the central warp pad — the one to the Homeworld.

They could still agree on some things.

Without another word, they scattered.

Pearl withdrew to East Asia. Silk became her raiment, and amid luminous mists she traced river channels on moonlit nights. She could never be too far from knowledge and order, however, so she soon drifted into the spheres of artisans and scholars. When she ran out of poems to memorize, her form coalesced into something more translucent. A quick bath in starlight disinfected any human garments to her satisfaction, and she began to costume herself like the locals. Eventually she made herself at home in every royal court from Pylos to Yin. After she'd read all the books and exhausted the sages, she challenged the strongest warriors, and trained and trained and trained.

Rose Quartz followed the greenery. When she did step upon barren land, gardens sprang up; when wild beasts threatened her fragile form, she subdued them with darts of thorn. Her hair cascaded into curls kept glistening with special lichens. Songs were her specialty. She could navigate by echoes alone, her eyes falling shut as she scented spore and pollen alike. She learned to mimic birdsong to discourage crowds of enchanted followers. The cities began to lose their charm, however. With them nearly always came war. Where Pearl shunned the nomads, Rose Quartz often lived among them.

Amethyst wound up in the Americas. When she wasn't riffing on native tongues, she casually rampaged from pole to pole. It was Rose Quartz who discovered her in the eye of a churning firestorm, transformed into a pack of jungle cats. The skirmish was fierce. Rose Quartz finally gained the upper hand with a squad of exploding water bulbs. It took another growing season to put out the flames. It would take longer to heal Amethyst.

Garnet _had_ been tracking Amethyst. She'd stuck to the heat of the equator. After a century or so, accidentally knocking down swathes of rainforest got old. Meanwhile, the Sahara was drying out. The humans had been busy up and down the Nile, but it was the open land which drew Garnet. No inconvenient oceans like the Ring of Fire, fewer snowstorms like the slowly curling fist of the Asian continent. Here she moved mountains, stamped out lakes, and opened up rifts in the crust. Here she put hands on boulders so ancient that their energy fields still matched a young planet.

And along the many trading routes, there were always humans to observe. Every now and then she'd save someone from a charging hippopotamus; they'd take her home to teach her how to turn a gourd into a rattle, or how to herd cattle without causing a stampede. At least they'd try. They taught her their dances. Garnet took a liking to this land, where the drums spoke and the dancers kicked at the dust and reached for the sky.

If they drummed hard enough, it could match the throbbing loss in Garnet's ribcage. For the last time, she forgot about the Gems, and stayed.

*

They met again on the subcontinent, where few would be confounded by sexes or the count of their limbs. Indeed, they were quickly granted shelter inside a sacred temple.

The doors shut. Rose Quartz drew up a silencing veil.

Pearl was livid. "Why didn't you watch Amethyst?!"

Garnet lifted a shoulder.

"You could have visited her any time, Pearl," pointed out Rose Quartz. "I told you I was only waiting on that redwood stand." She sighed. "None of us thought she'd be this unstable."

"I'm not like you, Rose Quartz." Pearl rubbed at her face. "What was I supposed to do if I'd been the one to find her—!"

Sweep away all impurities.

Rose Quartz stiffened. Her bottom lip began to wobble. At her elbow, an Amethyst glanced up from sniffing her.

"That's enough," Garnet said. "Rose Quartz was right."

"I'd like to be called Rose, now," said Rose evenly.

"Rose was right," Garnet said. "We each must settle on a stable construct. It will benefit," she added pointedly, "all of us."

"If only Pearl and Amethyst would heed that," muttered Rose.

"I think you're taking it too far," said Pearl. "Do you expect me to have pores, too?"

Rose opened her hands. "Sweat is good for temperature regulation!"

"Amethyst was also your fault by not calling for assistance," Garnet said to Rose.

The Amethysts chortled.

"Sorry, Garnet. The point does stand." Rose stuck her hands on her hips, displaying her gem.

"Fine, fine," said Pearl. "We already know how to fuse, so it shouldn't be that difficult to meld our rhythmic signatures with a physical state."

"What I meant is we regenerate with the same forms, too. The shape of the body forms the shape of the song," said Rose.

"I like round!" declared the main Amethyst. "It keeps all my parts close."

Rose smiled indulgently. "That's clever, Amethyst. All your molecules will be equidistant from your gem."

"I've got molecules! Nyao!"

Pearl groaned. "Must we really use the human matrix? I've been exploring the possibilities of this bipedal form, and it's terribly limited."

Rose picked up a bubble full of bits of Amethyst. She bounced it into the air and watched it float. Her voice was sad. No, her song was sad — Garnet could feel it. "We have limits too. For all we know, we're the only Crystal Gems left. Humanity may be our only shot at replenishing our powers. Besides, if this weren't the answer, the Gems would have abandoned physical forms altogether."

"There's a big difference between remaining in a, a simple dimension, and moving in with the wildlife!" Pearl whirled around, and paced to the interior of the temple.

Rose twitched, but took a breath. "They don't have a single civilization without poetry or song."

Garnet shrugged. She raised a finger to balance one of the Amethyst bubbles. "The local population is sustainable. For now. As long as the humans believe in us, we'll be safe here."

"We can learn to be strong in human forms," insisted Rose. She went to Pearl and by the light of her gem showed her the temple carvings. "They've already figured out energy paths, and we're much more powerful than they are. I promise you this will bear fruit."

"If we truly must, all right. Can we put Amethyst back together already?" Pearl shaded her eyes. "She's making me ill."

"Hyah! Weakling," snorted an Amethyst.

Later, as the sun sank over the humans packing up their wares and their animals, Garnet was perched on the roof when she overheard Rose and Pearl.

"I'm sorry," sniffled Pearl.

"It's fine," soothed Rose.

"You're right, I know you're right!" said Pearl. Garnet flinched at the forlorn note in her voice. "But oh, Rose. Rose, I miss it so much. Look up at them."

Garnet was looking up at them. She didn't need her eyes to see them; she could feel their distant song.

"I miss them too."

"That quality of the light... it's not possible this far out in the galaxy."

"You were always the most radiant, Pearl. You'll be the same here, you'll see."

A few moments passed. Then there was the scrape of a ladder. Rose crawled onto the roof and plunked herself next to Garnet.

"We need to stay together from now on," said Rose.

"Agreed." Garnet touched Rose's hair. Curls rolled off her fingers like waves. "I like your physical form already. It's very you."

Without warning, Rose embraced her, catching Garnet unprepared again. Rose was soft in all the ways Garnet was hard. Well, she'd have to get used to that.

"Thank you, Garnet. Coming from you that means a lot."

"Sure," said Garnet.

While Rose tended to Amethyst, Garnet used her sight to refine her own construct. She preferred black. It was both all the colors and none. It absorbed that much more solar warmth. Her gauntlets required counter-balance; her body flared out, curved, solidified. Combat wasn't only fists-first, which meant a flexible core to serve as both pillar and fulcrum. Protection for her eyes doubled as a barrier so as not to distract humans.

The hair was just awesome.

*

The Gems were trying to conserve resources, so transmitting themselves as energy had to be minimized. Searching for a working warp pad became a priority. Garnet could easily path-find from cookfire to cookfire. The small flares of human civilization had persevered, and since coalesced into a blazing web across the globe. The migration routes through habitable terrain were all well-established.

They took the opportunity to, as Rose put it, sightsee. (Garnet called it scouting.)

"Humans are amazing," Rose said breathlessly. "A thousand years from now, someone will say we did this. We didn't do a thing."

"Iooooo! Chomp garlic and human-watch!" Amethyst punched at the still cool morning air.

Pearl cringed. "Their menus aside, it does show a remarkable amount of foresight and organization."

Rose Quartz nodded. She had a gleam in her eye. "We can't underestimate them."

"Oh Rose Quartz," said Pearl, shaking her head. "These humans can't solve everything. Look at them! In another few years that next famine will turn into another war. I can practically mark it on a calendar."

"It is sort of pointless," Garnet agreed.

"Mm, they can't solve everything," said Rose. "But they'll surely try." She got up and slid down the dune, the wind catching her tunic, humming a song under her breath.

Amethyst ate a beetle and rolled after her.

Once Amethyst was more coherent, she disgorged all her knowledge of dialects. Even local idioms were no trouble for her. Of course since she usually picked up the swear-words first, Rose accompanied her as often as possible. With Amethyst's shapeshifting skills, she became their universal passport. The well-traveled Pearl was a bit jealous, but she was best at reading scripts and took care of the practicalities which the others overlooked.

Along the way, they helped where they could: fording swollen rivers, digging through collapsed walls, searching for children separated from their families.

Garnet did not permit much more. "Rose. We cannot tend humanity like one of your gardens," she said.

Rose's face fell. She hugged her armful of healing herbs. "But Garnet—"

Pearl chimed in. "The song has to be _original_. It won't work otherwise. I'm sorry, Rose. We have to let them make their mistakes."

Pouting, Rose opened a portal to one of her greenhouses and returned the plants.

Garnet said, "They'll figure it out without our help." Rose's wish was not without appeal. More often than not, the Gems were received as demigods or incarnations of existing deities. Taking it to the next level would be easy; so many individual humans had already swept swords and words across the map. The four of them could do exponentially more. Such a gain would be too short-lived for a Gem, however. Not worth their energy. Pearl had figured that the chorus yielded far greater power, and would better sustain them in the long run.

"We are saving humans though, aren't we?" Rose clasped her hands together.

"Of course we are. There's some now."

Pearl gave a start. "Why didn't you say so...!"

"Yaaaah, forsooth!" Amethyst bounded towards the struggle.

There was that single pure note as they drew their weapons.

It did feel good to fight again. As a team.

*

War and trade were hardening more territories into empires where none had been before. Their pact to stay together began to fray. If Amethyst liked one side of the Pelops, Pearl preferred the other. Garnet rode with the brutal Dune Kings while Rose retreated to the villages of the Earth-makers. Ironically they stuck together inside vast regions like the Middle Sea, Middle Rivers, or Middle Kingdoms. Inside a city-state? There weren't enough hills in Rome for all of them.

At last Rose brokered a compromise that they'd meet every few decades. It wasn't a bad idea to split up to look for that warp pad, anyway.

The one drawback was that without supervision Rose and Amethyst's caches quickly filled with their respective collections. Garnet did suspect Pearl of quite a secret armory, but Amethyst picked up any and every object to jam into her junk pile. Rose continued to select the most dangerous flora and fauna to tame. Or pet without taming. After a while, Garnet began to see it as a form of training. Shape-shifting into objects required immense concentration without any life-energy as a guide. And every hidden garden of Rose's improved her skills as a builder.

There were too many broken things which needed fixing, but Garnet knew that Rose meant to try. It hardened Garnet's resolve to be ready for the next threat, even if they had to walk through all the wilderness on the planet.

This time, one of them always accompanied Amethyst. Or tried to. Sometimes she got away. When they met at the complex on Sacred Mountain, Rose arrived draped in Celtic jewelry and Amethyst had been nearly drained replacing frostbitten toes.

"She was only one peninsula over," said Rose, and pulled that one innocent face which Garnet couldn't resist after a long stint in the Desert of the Red Sands.

"Did you see what I did with those apples?" Amethyst snorted and laughed at the same time.

"At least you put them back," said Rose. "Let me check your gem, all right?"

"And you should have heard my insults. I owned the hall!"

"That's a skill? Tsk," said Pearl, shaking her head.

Amethyst shook a packet from her hair. "Hey, I got you some moss, Rose. I think it's different from the other one—"

There was a happy squeal, and it wasn't Amethyst. "It's lovely! And still slimy! Thank you, Amethyst! I'll add it to the bed."

Pearl peered at the sample. "It looks like every other moss."

"That's where you drool, and I rule," said Amethyst. She shook her hips in victory.

"What does that even mean?" Pearl turned to Rose. "You're not sleeping on this, are you?"

Rose opened a portal to her cache, and stuck her arm in. "The bed is for mosses. You have to tuck them in just right, so they have a chance to thrive. Now, Amethyst, I really do have to take a look at your gem."

"One gem comin' up!"

"You ought to go easy on forming animals with greater mass than you, I don't think you're ready—" Rose turned around to face Amethyst, and covered her lips. "Oh, er."

"Amethyst!" Pearl scolded. "It's rude to lift your tunic like that!"

"Whaaaat, my gem is here!"

Rose was blushing. "I didn't expect so many of them," she said faintly.

Garnet raised her brow.

"The more the merrier!" Amethyst shook. They all wobbled.

"Show-off," said Pearl. A half-century ago she'd asked Amethyst for transformation pointers and had yet to live it down.

Rose gulped. "Are they functional?"

Pearl huffed. "Oh for heaven's sake, she's not going to have offspring."

"What's wrong, Pearl? Wouldn't you want _more_ of me?" Amethyst grinned.

Pearl smirked. "I've had quite enough of that for one existence."

Garnet took a moment to scrutinize Rose's flushed stare. She cleared her throat. "Rose. Check her gem now, you can play with them later."

"I wasn't going to...!" Rose wrinkled her nose at Garnet. Then she bent over Amethyst's gem. "You may have as many as you want, Amethyst, but two is the usual."

"Yeah, they're a pain to line up. They're always pointing all over the place."

Later, when Garnet went to see if Rose was all right, Amethyst had beaten her to it. Garnet didn't mean to overhear. She was still in the habit of going motionless if she heard a noise.

"I've never seen you all topsy-turvy!" Amethyst giggled. "What was up with that? Even Pearl was cool with it."

Rose chuckled sheepishly. "You surprised me. It's just that... Amethyst, breasts are secondary sexual features."

"Ooooooh," cooed Amethyst. Then there was a thump as she dropped to the bed. "Ohhhhhh!"

'Oh,' thought Garnet. 'Wait a m—'

"Wait a minute, Rose! Does that mean you're in heat like the humans?"

"Quiet down! No, they don't, I mean, yes, well, they're not quite like animals." Then Rose audibly squirmed, hair and cloth and sheets all rubbing together.

"No way, Rose, you did _that_ too?"

"That's none of your business," said Rose a tad more firmly. Then she clapped her hand over Amethyst's next 'oooooh.' "Amethyst dear, you're like my sister. You're all my sisters. It's strange to receive a display like that from someone who's family to you."

"Aw," Amethyst snickered, sounding pleased and abashed. "Does that mean I brought the sex-ay?"

"You did," Rose said fondly. "A bit too much."

"Can't handle my sex-ay!"

Rose laughed. "Keep it down, Amethyst! You're filled to the brim with sexyness, all right?"

There was a more substantial thump as Amethyst tackled Rose. A bit of breathing and giggling, and then Amethyst said, "I'll try not to overwhelm you with my sex powers."

"Thanks. Amethyst? I'm serious now, Amethyst, listen." There was a pause as the rustling died down. Amethyst went still. Rose said, "Sex really is a potent thing. You're much stronger than anyone else here, save Garnet. And definitely more than any human. It's dangerous to be careless about it."

"I don't have to be stiff like Pearl, do I?"

"A little politeness never hurt. Mainly, you said it yourself: don't overwhelm anyone. You really don't know your own strength. And... I'm not actually sure if that can corrupt a gem."

Amethyst grunted with surprise. "Shaking my bags could be bad?"

"No, no, a flash like that won't do anything. You could probably wander around naked and it wouldn't stir a leaf. Other than the attention you always get."

"Whew." Amethyst rolled around.

Rose continued, "Sexual relations are one way humans merge their energies. It's not only physical."

"Like fusing?"

Garnet was intrigued.

"It might be," hedged Rose. "I have to test it out more. So promise me you'll be careful?"

"Yeah, I got it. Rein in my sacks of sex-ay!"

A chorus of human voices echoed down the narrow stone passages. They held a harmony in the air until the drums kicked in. Garnet went still.

Pearl came up, dusting off her hands. "Their astronomical records are quite extensive. I haven't even begun the second dynasty—"

There flared a swift streak against the brightly painted walls.

"Let's dance!" Amethyst rolled past them.

Rose came pelting after her. "Amethyst, wait!"

At first Pearl and Garnet misunderstood. "They're not going to fuse, are they?" said Pearl. In a blink they were poised atop a stela. All along the plateau, the humans were already in their ceremonial formation. There was a brief, confused spasm as Amethyst infiltrated their lines. Rose was having a few words with the chieftains.

Suddenly the music kicked up. The beat quickened, and voices trilled as Amethyst began to dance with anyone who would have her.

"Making a scene, as usual," said Pearl. Garnet watched the lines of power whip around Amethyst as she threw herself into the music. The chieftains were still whispering amongst themselves when she pulled Rose into the fray. Rose's aura surged; Amethyst laughed madly as she spun them, nearly cracking the stone underfoot.

Rose never tried to take the lead. She did gesture towards the musicians, earning a secondary nod from a chief. The beat steadied. Rose eased Amethyst into the proper steps. More and more humans joined in until Rose and Amethyst whirled a matching orbit in the midst of a flailing, frenetic cloud of dancers.

Later Garnet would remember how much they were both sweating.

"What are they doing?" Pearl asked.

"Having fun," said Garnet. She hopped down.

"Where are you going?"

"To find an drum."

They danced and played until the humans' sacred stars aligned, though none but the Gems could perceive that celestial choir.

Later as they watched the sunrise from the pinnacle of the complex, Rose surrendered a pitaya fruit to Amethyst, and remarked, "We don't know nearly enough about humans. Not if we're going to defend Earth."

Pearl shifted from her reverie. "Don't be silly, we know all about them. Why, I read that whole library before that awful fire."

"It's system of great complexity, as you always say," Rose said. Pearl looked pleased that someone was listening. Rose smiled. "There are always little nodes of the unexpected."

*

Garnet later cornered Rose in the jungle within the folds of a towering tree.

Rose sighed, and began to untie her belt. "You could be a bit less rough, Garnet." The bark scraped her back, and her garment caught on the buttress roots on either side.

Oh, personal space again. "Sorry," said Garnet. She took a huge step back. For good measure she glared at the branches until any remaining wildlife flew or leaped away.

Rose looked surprised. Then her lips bowed into a small smile. "Come over here, I'll show you." Delicately she lifted her hem. "I'm surprised you can't already see this."

"We're too separate," Garnet said absently. She crouched down to do a visual examination by the light of Rose's gem. Not much was unexpected. It smelled... earthy, as she imagined of Rose. Yet there was that sharp tinge which was also uniquely human. Uniquely Rose? Garnet didn't like to give off too much scent in case of watchful enemies.

She looked up to find Rose blushing. "What do you think?" Rose said. She hadn't sounded that timid in millennia.

"It looks like one of your designs. Very pink."

Rose opened and closed her mouth. "...I'll explain the pink later. But this is how most human females look. In a general sense, of course. There are more variations than can be cataloged. More to come, if genetic robustness holds."

"So you didn't... make it up?"

One day Garnet would have to figure out how and why she had a calming effect on Rose Quartz. "I grew into it when I grew into this body."

"Like a human." Garnet nodded. She got to her feet.

"Yes. You know how I feel about letting nature develop."

"You'll find out about it." Garnet stopped. "The fusing."

"Whatever you say, Garnet," said Rose tartly. "It's a good thing I'm already familiar with humans. Don't worry, I'll gather data. I'm just sorry I didn't think of it earlier."

"Rose?"

"Yes?"

"Should I be more gentle?"

Rose needed no further elaboration. "You don't have to be, with us. Particularly if it's not in your nature."

"What if I wanted to grow into it?"

Rose pushed her hair from her eyes. "May I offer a technical opinion?"

"Yes. Please."

"The team doesn't need you to be gentle. You've stepped up to be our strength. That's how we depend on you." _Harmony._ "Do you want to know what I think as a friend?"

Garnet was taken aback for a moment.

Rose smiled. Then she dared to pluck Garnet's shades from her face. Under the cool shadows of the branches, the sight was little different. Too late, Garnet realized that she hadn't even twitched. When Rose's eyes were opened wide like that, she could be devastating.

"Garnet, you read situations better than any of us. If circumstances call for strength, be strong. If they call for gentleness," Rose said, in one motion returning Garnet's shades to her outstretched hands and kissing her on the cheek. "Then believe that you're capable of being tender."

She replaced her shades. It sounded easier said than done. But it was simpler than a constant struggle for control. "Thanks," said Garnet.

"Always," said Rose.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Please insert "approximate" everywhere.)    
>  "Serious Steven" ([PNG](http://steven-universe.wikia.com/wiki/File:SeriousStevenClip14.png)) ; "Space Race" ([PNG](http://steven-universe.wikia.com/wiki/File:Steven.Universe.S01E28.Space.Race.720p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-RainbowCrash.mkv_snapshot_00.28_-2014.11.17_16.12.44-.png))    
>  1250 BCE: Pylos (Mycenea), Yinxu near Anyang, China, ex. North America: Adena culture, (jaguar), crisscrossing Sahel and Sudanian Savanna and into Great Rift Valley. Concept of saṅgīta: Music and Musical Thought in Early India, Rowell, p.9; [Great Pyramid](http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Great_Pyramid.html), ref Alexander the Great (Macedonia)    
>  After Late Bronze Age Collapse (1200 BCE): Peloponnesus, Garamantes, Nok, Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Zhou China.    
>  50 BCE Monte Albán: continental Celts (La Tène culture), some proto-Loki, Great Sandy Desert, [dragonfruit](http://www.maya-ethnobotany.org/edible-nut-fruit-seed-mayan-agriculture-diet-nutrition-health/images-tropical-fruits-trees-digital-photography-ethno-botany-Guatemala-Mexico-Belize.php), ref Library of Alexandria, Ceiba pentandra 


	3. Chapter 3

 

Empires bloated to the limit of their swords and coin, and popped under their own weight. The Huns shoved everyone across the map. New empires sprang up and spasmed; successors became sovereigns.

The Gems paid little attention. They were all collectors now, this time of music. The more nuances they absorbed, the easier it was to enhance the effects. They mastered instruments as quickly as the humans could invent them. Over a hundred days Garnet nearly cracked a gem thumping beat after beat after beat. She and Amethyst could go months repeating work songs and cradle rhymes to each other— or at least until the other two begged for respite. Rose divided her time between Gem experiments and studying under any master who would take her. Pearl absorbed every verse, every lament and elegy and heroic chant. Love songs.

Though it was often difficult to stalk the furtive Rose, Garnet did catch Pearl and Amethyst. It was during a survey of an isle of Hiva, and fresh off a long crossing in a small boat. This time Garnet clung to a neighboring cliff trying to sneak up on a sample for Rose. On an old lookout platform, Pearl was reciting a poem into the dusk. She had given up trying to quiet Amethyst, who was fresh from a feast and singing a bawdy Viking song in perfect counterpoint.

Pearl finished first; she held the last syllable with a sigh. She leaned on a post and gazed out on the star-encrusted ocean.

"—and my rooster was never the same again! Haw!" Amethyst wrapped up with a flourish.

Pearl regarded her. "That kekryphalos is lovely, Amethyst."

"Keky-whu?" Amethyst swayed her way to Pearl. "This old thing? I found it in my stash." She shook her head to show off the mesh headdress. Several strands escaped into the gentle breezes. "You're in the wrong century, P. Nobody calls it that anymore."

Pearl reached out to tuck in Amethyst's silvery hair. "It reminds me of Mytilene. Sitting in the shade, listening to poetry and the plucking of the lyre."

"I'll pluck your lyre," muttered Amethyst darkly. Just as suddenly her eyes brightened with mischief. She grabbed Pearl's hands. "Let me twirl you!"

"Amethyst—!" Pearl was too nimble on her feet not to respond. The floor barely creaked. Amethyst spun her like a top, from shoulder to hip and back again; with natural aplomb Pearl's arm fountained at the apex.

Before Amethyst could pull off a faster spin, Pearl's other arm curled about her bare neck and she dipped into a kiss. A perfectly pointed toe went airborne for a moment, and remained perfectly pointed.

Amethyst's lips were parted when they straightened. Pearl's eyelids slowly rose. And very carefully she disentangled herself from Amethyst and stepped back, her whole face hot.

Amethyst had gone a bit watery. She stood stone-still, gaping like a wrasse fish.

Obviously frazzled, Pearl hopped on top of the farthest post. "I'm... I'm going to help Rose. Down in the village. Be right back!"

There was a crack, and a trickle of crumbling volcanic rock. Garnet planted her feet into the vertical cliff beside the platform. "Rose is busy."

"Did you— excuse me," said Pearl, and escaped.

"Aw!" yelled Amethyst after her. "I don't even have squid breath!" She rubbed her lips with her palm. "I'm all dry! Like you like it!"

Garnet didn't have time for this. "Here," she said, giving the bubbled sample to Amethyst, "To Rose. I'll get Pearl." She tilted her head. A few seconds wouldn't hurt. "You know how she is. She's sensitive."

Amethyst's eyes got huge. Then she grinned. "I get it. She's afraid of her love!"

Garnet lifted a shoulder. "Do not let Rose know about this, all right?"

"Uh, fine. Why?"

"Can't tell you," said Garnet truthfully. She fell after Pearl.

She caught up with her at the edge of the village. When Garnet put a hand on her shoulder, she jumped. "Garnet! Oh! Before, that was nothing to worry about—"

"Wait," said Garnet. She stretched her arms; subtle designs began to undulate their way around her skin. "I have to go hit my chest first."

"Of course, of course, we have to observe their customs."

"Then we're going out on the canoes so we can learn their paddling chants." And so they could complete part of the survey. Rose's ocean floaters could only learn so much.

"Right." Pearl blew out a breath. Garnet released her.

"Don't stand under the coconuts."

A small tremor, several fallen coconuts, and a few persuasive speeches later, they were paddling out to sea with the village's second-best navigator and an excited dog. Garnet was paddling, anyway. Pearl kept dangling her fingers in the water (no drag, naturally), and had clamped her hand over her mouth. Eventually she started bumming out the dog.

"Was I interrupting?" Garnet finally said.

Pearl jolted up. The canoe rocked. "No, not at all! It was... a lapse of judgment."

Garnet was silent. Even the dog drew in its tongue.

"I didn't really mean it," babbled Pearl.

With an effort, Garnet refrained from raising an eyebrow (a useful expression which often gave too much away). "Then tell Amethyst."

Pearl told Amethyst nothing.

On Amethyst's part the whole thing was forgotten by morning. Rose was too preoccupied sending sample bubbles to their respective caches. So it fell on Garnet to scoop them both up before Amethyst could say a word once she finally noticed Pearl moping around.

"Mmmph mmhm?"

"Did you want... something, Garnet?" Pearl shot a look at Amethyst.

Garnet landed them atop a volcanic spire. Rose was down on the beach, wading through the foamy tide-line. Garnet dropped Amethyst, and set Pearl down. "It doesn't matter what the two of you do, as long as it's not during a mission. Got it?"

"No kissy-face on the battlefield!" Amethyst nodded vigorously.

Pearl was turning colors. "I would never even consider such a thing."

"Admit it," Amethyst cooed. She flashed her teeth. "You want some more of all this. You think I'm not so bad."

"It was in the moment," said Pearl, looking askance, twiddling her thumbs.

Amethyst ducked between Garnet's legs to peer up at Pearl. "But I was like how I always am. What's so weird about that?"

"Your hair was up, and you spun me like we were combining," Pearl burst out. "The breeze was lovely. All the stars were out. It was special."

"Yeaha, I'm special," Amethyst tried to shake Garnet's ankles.

At last Pearl turned her razor-focus on them. "You _are_. You all are. I can't show you like I could, if, if, we were still—" She bit her lip.

Amethyst's eyes got really huge, and her hands turned into soft paws. She batted at Pearl's toes. "I gotcha, P."

"These blasted bodies! Maybe if we weren't so dependent on them to convey everything, we wouldn't be constantly at each other's throats." (Garnet quietly kneed Amethyst in the jaw before she blurted a quip.) "And they allow you far too much latitude to be _disgusting_ , which you know I can't stand."

"Yeah, not everyone can handle my flow," said Amethyst smugly.

"So... so could you please be discreet? I know we're all going to find out sooner or later—" Pearl got a shrug from Garnet, "—but at least pretend some privacy?"

Amethyst buttoned her lips. Literally. "Nof a wurf."

"And I'm not kissing you again," said Pearl, with less conviction.

"S'cool."

"Is this settled now?" Garnet said. All seemed to be going well so far. Rose's tutorials were working, even though Garnet was still barred from human diplomatic meetings.

Pearl nodded curtly. There was still a light tinge of color on her cheeks.

(Any time Amethyst brought it up again, Pearl would always remind her: Pearl had kissed her speechless.)

Amethyst scaled Garnet's hips. "Are we still not telling Rose?" she whispered loudly.

"Oh heavens, we'd better not," interjected Pearl. "She gets overwrought about these things, and you know how she is when she starts crying. She's also been awfully preoccupied with her projects." On one foot, she whirled around. "I do wonder what she's working on."

*

They found out soon enough. On a lonely hill in Grœnland, Rose lay upon the thick grass and showed them.

"There are creatures showing up in our old stomping grounds," Rose said. "And I think they're gems."

Pearl gasped. "We closed off those sanctuaries when we came back on-planet. Every last one! How—?"

"I have no idea," said Rose. "The last few thousand years were so chaotic."

"Do you suppose they found a warp pad?" Pearl asked.

Garnet sloshed the hot spring she was steaming in.

Rose shook her head. "Even if they had, they're not complex enough to transport or warp. I set up alarms in case they do."

"Are they wicked nasty?" said Amethyst. Absently she chewed a small willow.

Rose scratched her ear. "A few of them were biters. And shooters. And there's some crushing sorts."

" _Wild_ gems?!" It was a good thing they'd chosen a spot far from any of the human settlements, or Pearl would have given them away.

"So bad baddies," said Amethyst.

"Only if you approach them in a certain way..." Rose crossed her arms. "That's not our biggest problem. They're using the veils to hide, and some of them are starting to go on raids." On humans.

Garnet had heard this part already. "Are the veils failing?"

Pearl stared at her as though she knew she'd heard this part already.

Said Rose, "Not on the larger structures. There's quite a force attacking the Lunar Sea Spire—" Pearl gasped again, "—and they can't get through." Pearl sighed. Rose continued, "I do think we ought to remove the Moon Goddess so they won't be so attracted to it."

Pearl clutched at Rose. "But you know what that will do!"

Garnet cut in. "And on the smaller ones?"

"Hanging by a thread. The veils have been intermittent, so the sorties slip out that way. On land, people are also more likely to stumble into them. If they're overrun with gems, they're basically death traps."

"Cool," said Amethyst. At a look from Rose, she amended, "And yet not cool."

"As for the ones in the ocean, if any gems escaped then the marine fields and the food chain would prevail with time. They also didn't weaken as much. I was able to recharge them myself. And our own caches are safe," said Rose, to Amethyst's relief. "I've seeded all of them as a precaution." Earth crystals could collect energies on a smaller scale; Rose was becoming quite skilled at growing them.

"That was why you kept stealing away," said Pearl. "What I don't understand is why the two of you didn't tell us about this." She shot a glance at Garnet.

Rose also looked to Garnet, who said nothing. She said, "I wanted to compare the energy loss between land and sea. It's indeed significant. I think... I propose that we move as many sanctuaries as we can into the ocean. Our caches too."

"Hoooo!" said Amethyst. "That's gonna be a big job."

Pearl looked puzzled. "Is that all? Amethyst is right— it's tremendous work for four Crystal Gems, but nothing we can't handle when fused."

"And," Rose said, "I want to save the corrupted gems."

There was silence. The wind whooshed through the fjords.

Pearl was doing her best to stay calm. "Rose, those things are our enemies."

Suddenly Garnet lifted herself from the hot spring. Steam huffed into the cold air. "The sanctuaries must be destroyed."

"No!" cried Rose. Pearl stepped back so fast she fell to the grass next to Rose, who was scrambling to her feet.

"Holy codpiece," Amethyst said. "Can we even do that?"

"Like Pearl said, there's nothing we can't do when we're fused." It would be a tremendous amount of energy, but the humans were creeping along according to plan.

"NO!" Rose said again. "We can't simply abandon them!" Whether she meant the sanctuaries or the gems wasn't clear.

Pearl got up too. "I really must object, Garnet. What if we need the sanctuaries in the future? What if previous Gems hid items of power, tomes of knowledge? Weapons! It's just the four of us. We can't call for... for anyone to come help us."

Rose began to weep. Amethyst gave her a big squish.

Garnet's lips tightened. "The sanctuaries are failing, and the corrupted gems are getting out. They're only doing that because the sanctuaries are _there_." She formed a fist, and a gauntlet manifested.

"This is why you gave me time? Allowed me to scout ahead?" Rose straightened. Her hair began to billow, and not from the wind. Tears streamed down her cheeks; where they landed, the scrubby willows began to grow into full-sized trees. Rose's eyes began to open wide. "You just wanted to wipe them all out! I won't let you! _I won't fuse with you!_ "

Pearl covered her mouth with both hands. Amethyst backed up till she stumbled into Garnet's legs.

Garnet called on her other gauntlet.

"You guys..." said Amethyst in a small voice.

With a flurry, Pearl drew her weapon and struck the ground between them. A bolt flew up to the stratosphere. Startled, Rose began to drain of energy. Garnet looked down and saw her wrists tied up in Amethyst's whip. She sighed, and banished both gauntlets. 

Displaced water from the spring fell back down as icy rain. "That's enough," said Pearl tightly. "Rose, do you have the figures?"

"They're here," Rose said faintly. She produced a small pad — Pearl had gifted it to her back when they were learning languages in the Cyclades. Now Rose seemed to struggle for her words. "People take generations to build. Here we are, to destroy our own," she murmured.

They held position while Pearl examined and analyzed Rose's data. Amethyst kept her weapon out, but eventually she plopped between Garnet and Rose, and yawned. The sun began to arc back to its preferred horizon.

"Hm, yes," said Pearl at last. "Despite Garnet's insistence that we completely cut ourselves off from all Gem civilization — destroying all the sanctuaries would actually release so much free energy that humankind would die off from radiation poisoning. As well as most of the animal species. And, well, everything except us." Pearl seemed to stop short of mentioning plants, not that it helped Rose's demeanor much.

Amethyst shot awake. "Kittens too?"

"I don't know what domesticated felines have to do with the subject at hand, but yes, kittens too." Pearl ignored Amethyst's plaintive wail. "To humor you, I tried a gradual demolition plan. According to my crude simulations, human activity at present growth patterns would increase rapidly in that time span. We would become more powerful—"

Garnet perked.

"—but eventually these gem pests would transfer their attentions from the sanctuaries to _us_. And since there are quite a few breeders in this catalog, at the critical point we would be fighting non-stop just to keep the status quo."

"Then we battle them," said Garnet.

"Ah ah!" Pearl raised a peeved finger. "We would need to be fused at all hours, for months on end, which we know very well is ill-advised at best. The constant fighting would also let off a similar radiation cloud, extinguishing the human race, thus rendering us too enfeebled to fight. Amethyst would probably sit on a city by accident."

"Eh," said Amethyst.

"We'd be done, Garnet. It's not worth it." Pearl activated her gem and thrust her spear into it as though she wanted to do the same to Garnet. "You were the ones who wanted to place all our hopes on these fragile human creatures. So if we're to protect them, then we might as well go with Rose's plan. It will take time, but it won't waste our energy, as each sanctuary and most of those old battlefields come with their own energy source. We really ought to have reinforced the veils sooner, instead of this global hither-and-thither."

Amethyst poked Pearl on the knee. Then she poked Garnet, and Rose, who looked up with a damp face. "Soooooo don't blow up on me— I was pretty sure I remember something about choosing Earth, because stuff went so wacky on the Homeworld."

"I knew you weren't as damaged as you looked," Garnet remarked.

Amethyst looked up into the mist-soaked sun. "The thing is if we had to cut ties, it would be no bigs, right? Sure we can't squash puny humans. But if it was totally necessary, the sanctuaries would be, uh—"

"Expendable," sniffled Rose.

"I was gonna say boar food. Hey, why don't we rule the world! Just the four of us!" She flopped back and threw her limbs towards the sky before rolling on her belly.

Pearl held her brow. "Amethyst, I already explained—"

"What about more visibility?" said Rose. "What about our own Gem temple? We need not rule over humans. We could show ourselves, though, couldn't we? All this sneaking around could be over."

"It would be convenient to merge all of our caches into one spot," Garnet allowed.

"Oh no, I am not moving my treasures next to Amethyst's trash," said Pearl.

"Separate rooms," said Rose. "And perhaps a separate room for—"

Garnet shook her head. "No, we're not doing a gem zoo."

"B-b-bubblies!" exclaimed Amethyst. The others turned to look. She was halfway to dipping her face in the hot spring. "Check it out." Rose reached over and dragged Amethyst from the edge.

Pearl brightened. "Of course! We could put them in bubbles!"

"Shield bubbles?" asked Rose.

"Teleport bubbles?" said Garnet.

"Both! All we have to do is adjust the resonance until the gem field is contained. I'm sure there's an old recipe for such in the ancient annals back home, but we could figure it out, right? Rose, you said they weren't complex enough to use the warp pads. That means they can't control their own fields! A simple sphere should contain them indefinitely."

"Aha, you got all that from Earth farts," snickered Amethyst.

"You're disgusting," Pearl observed.

As Amethyst cheerfully agreed, Rose observed, "That would only work if their physical body were pruned away down to their gem."

This, Garnet understood. "We fight them to submission."

Amethyst hopped into a battle stance. "Yah! Buhhatttlllleeee!"

Suddenly Rose began to laugh. "Amethyst, some sentry really is going to sound a muster if you keep up the battle-cries." She looked up at Garnet. "Yes. We battle once more. Agreed."

"We'll be glorified house-movers and pest-catchers, but it could be worse," said Pearl. She paused, and gingerly touched Rose's hair. "Are you all right, Rose?"

Rose was smiling now, though her eyes were lidded. "I shouldn't have lost control," she said. "Look at them." She patted the inflated sprawl of willow.

Amethyst got down on all fours to sniff at the roots. "Look fine to me."

"They look healthy, it's true," said Rose. "But when Winter comes, the wind will shear it from the ground and the ice will cut its tender leaves."

"Can you shrink it?" asked Amethyst.

"I can't. It won't go back," said Rose.

*

Garnet was in her element. Boulders were bashed, rivers recoiled, massive plates shuddered with every stomp. With Pearl she found the seams of the Earth and rended them free.

She didn't pressure Rose to join them. Rose scattered animals ahead of their earthquakes, giving the humans time to flee and the Gems room to work. And it was glorious work. When they weren't fighting gem creatures, they cracked the planet open to be re-shaped. Once, Pearl mentioned that the last relocation had altered the Earth's rotation. Garnet couldn't remember grinning like that before. Or ever. Pearl left her to cool down in a syrupy fall of lava into the ocean.

It wasn't as though Rose was completely avoiding them. She still joined in the battles against the corrupted gems. Whenever possible, she sent her minions to do the fighting, and provided long-range support. No one asked her to fuse, not even Pearl who delighted in their dance.

With each island, Pearl and Rose had to recalibrate the veil harmonics before they could anchor it to the sea floor. Naturally Pearl picked the least interesting parts of the ocean, though Rose said the humans would venture by anyway. That left Garnet and Amethyst on lookout over large tracts of nothingness. Amethyst passed the time by changing into things and making Garnet guess what she was.

After a few hundred rounds of Garnet throwing the game with nonsense answers, Amethyst came up with a good one.

"Tentacle monster," Garnet said.

"Wraaaaa!" Amethyst leaped. Garnet was far too quick for any of the tentacles to gain a hold. A few transformations later, they were wrestling on the sand.

This was far more enjoyable. Amethyst's body wasn't merely spherical, Garnet realized. She had curves, and folds, and hidden corners, and her hair was soft as wave crests. Garnet pinned her; Amethyst popped out extra limbs. Garnet hammered each wrist into the sand; with a squeal, Amethyst wrapped her waist with her legs.

"Let's smooch it up," Amethyst grinned.

Garnet turned her head as a tail started wriggling from somewhere. "No," she said.

"Awwwww." Amethyst pouted. "Come on, I can change into anything. What's your pleasure, mate?"

"Change to yourself," said Garnet.

She could not understand why they sometimes blushed at what she said. Oh well. Amethyst changed back. Before she could stuff her face in Garnet's cleavage (they might never get to the smooching), Garnet curled her body to reach Amethyst's face. Amethyst crawl-climbed up to meet her.

A moment before their lips touched, Amethyst squealed again. Garnet caught the sound in her mouth, and then there was _Amethyst_ , greedy and sprawling and perfumed with bravura.

Garnet was hearing something... it sounded like the inside of a conch shell...

Amethyst shoved her away with just her hips, wresting her arms from the sand. "Whoaa! Slow your roll!" She patted Garnet's cheeks. "We're not fusing, G."

Garnet blinked. Grains of sand from Amethyst's touch hovered an inch from her skin before dropping. Her own gem powers had surged without her noticing. There wasn't much time to ponder, though, as Amethyst hauled her back in.

Then they went back to wrestling.

For a century or two, this was Gem business. Rose and now Pearl would often steal worried glances at the humans, but the sanctuaries had to take priority. There were occasional battles. It didn't take long to test the refined bubbles on captured gems, but to save space and energy they had to bury many of them on-site.

After all that work, Garnet and Amethyst would steal away to spar and kiss. Never at the same time — Garnet knew better than to encourage another habit of Amethyst's. Usually Garnet would have at least acknowledged their irresponsible conduct. Being drained after moving an entire island had to be good for a breather or two.

They could only kiss for a little while because Garnet had trouble holding back. A punch was simple; an entire body's worth of reactions was quite the opposite. Yet it seemed time and intensity didn't greatly affect satiation. Differing tastes weren't an impediment either. Amethyst could be entertained by tongue-kissing while Garnet was unmoved. And she still refused to add tickle receptors.

It was fun to find Amethyst's, though.

As for Pearl, she grew more and more distant with every sanctuary. She always found something to do when Garnet came over to loom imposingly. So instead Garnet sent Amethyst.

Amethyst bounced over and kept bouncing.

"What is wrong with you! Wait," Pearl pinched the bridge of her nose. "Don't answer that."

"Your vibes are all weird, Pearly Pearl." Amethyst sniffed at Pearl until she lifted her arm away.

Unfortunately, that was the perfect opening for Amethyst. She glommed onto Pearl's torso. "Honestly!" cried Pearl. "Don't you see I have work to do?"

"C'mon, all you need are your hands and those are free!" Amethyst grinned. "I'll stay real still."

"And quiet."

Amethyst nodded into her chest. Pearl sighed.

The lavender flush on Pearl's face began to fade after a few moments. As the figures flashed across her eyes, she absently began to pet Amethyst's hair.

Amethyst tightened her hold.

"Oh," said Pearl. "Well..." In an elegant collapse, she guided them down until they were sitting. Amethyst held on to complete the capture. Then she snuffled and crawled onto Pearl's lap, and closer to Pearl's stroking hand.

Rose sat beside Garnet. She was cradling a dangerous-looking lizard and tickling under its jaw. "That was a nice thing to do," she said.

"Expedient," said Garnet.

"You could be our peacemaker yet," laughed Rose. She put her head, or at least her hair, upon Garnet's shoulder.

"Don't foist your job on me."

"I didn't do such a great job before."

There was a long silence filled with Amethyst's rumbling.

Garnet looked down. "Was I too harsh again? Up north?"

Rose had a smile in her voice. "You did a very human thing. You realized what my intentions were, and how Pearl would object to both of us. So you made a command decision."

Personnel was not Garnet's forté. "I'm not much of a commander."

Rose nudged her. "You only need to be the best one here!" They chuckled together.

"Same goes for you," said Garnet.

"I suppose. It's the peculiar arithmetics of our social structure. Pearl explained it to me one time. If there were a myriad of us, all these comparisons would make sense. Now we just have to do the best we can." Rose straightened, and took Garnet's hands. "I'm sorry I can't fuse with any of you yet. I'm not ready."

"Don't push yourself." Garnet attempted to squeeze Rose's hands. Rose only winced a little. "Besides, none of us would run from a fight. I'm not worried. Fusions become natural when needs call."

Rose smiled. She tucked herself against Garnet's neck. It was like drowning in waves of tresses. "Whatever else we may be short on, I'm sure we have more than enough love to last the four of us."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1000 CE [Marquesas Islands](http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu/holokai/geography/hiva/isles_of_hiva.html), ref. (post-)Roman Empire, Huns, the Caliphates; Zimbabwe Dance: Rhythmic Forces, Ancestral Voices: an Aesthetic Analysis (Welsh-Asante, K.); [Blog: More Maps That Explain the World](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/13/40-more-maps-that-explain-the-world/); Sappho, detourné, Adorning the World: Art of the Marquesas Islands, Ivory, C.;    
>  [Greenland](http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/greenland/), "Cheeseburger Backpack" ([PNG](http://steven-universe.wikia.com/wiki/File:Screen_Shot_2013-11-12_at_12.48.56_PM.png)), ref. Linear B, Salix herbacea, armor not fashion codpiece.    
>  [Japan Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days, Moved Axis](http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/japanquake/earth20110314.html), "Little Ice Age"


	4. Chapter 4

 

The Mongols shoved everyone across the map. And then, even as the Gems anchored the last sanctuary, something else swept across the map.

"Why is the port so deserted?" Pearl wondered aloud.

Garnet set foot on the cobblestone and raised her hand. "Amethyst," she said.

Amethyst halted halfway down. "Ya chief."

"She's not our chief—" began Pearl.

"Get Rose back on board," Garnet said. "She doesn't like these kinds of things."

Amethyst ran backward up the gangplank. "Roooooosie...!"

"What is it? What's wrong, Garnet?" Pearl came up beside her.

Garnet waited.

"Oh, dear," said Pearl at last. "Oh no. I... yes, of course, I'll have to recalculate our thresholds, just give me one moment." She laughed nervously, the lights from her display flashing on her eyes. "I mean, we could always go into hibernation if it gets bad. For us, I mean. It's already rather bad for the humans. I can't believe a single event, or even a confluence of events... it _is_ a single-species model, but still, their population growth was stable. They should have been at least— sustainable!" She let out a sigh of relief. "By a thin margin. We're all right. And really, what was I so worried about? There's a whole land-mass across the ocean that's unaffected. Relatively diffuse, but more than enough to repopulate the planet."

Garnet frowned. "You can't cultivate them like gem gardens either." That was dangerously close to some of their enemies' tactics.

"I'm not doing anything; Rose is the one _doing_ things with them." There were some high-pitched noises from within the ship's hold. Rose. Pearl poked at a barrel, reconfigured the chemistry of some pickling-water, and disinfected her cloak with a fine mist. "With fragility comes transience. Their population will recover. I do hope the next few centuries aren't so tiresome, though."

A quarter of the ship's crew stumbled down the gangplank in a panic, while the rest prepared to shove off again. The cook began tossing rations over the side.

"They'll figure it out," said Garnet.

Travel became more difficult for the four of them. The zones of pestilence were bleak beyond description, filled with humans beyond their powers to help. Once they left, they attracted more attention than usual by appearing in pristine health. (Amethyst's shapeshifting suggestions were roundly dismissed.) In one town they were even mistaken for thieves. 

On top of all the anguish, Rose realized they were causing problems for others by sparking rumors about a mysterious group of travelers. Their forays were reduced to pairs or alone, with the others waiting in a home base. Garnet picked out a ghastly mask; Amethyst did a trick with her skin texture to look like she was wearing one.

Despite her early misgivings, Pearl was finding more and more diversions among the surviving population. "I thought we were missing out on the last few centuries," Pearl burbled. "But now! An unparalleled striving for perfection practically around every corner! Well, every corner of this peninsula, but the influence is spreading!"

"Not the only thing that's spreading," said Amethyst.

Every evening it was the same tale. Pearl wore the same dress and the same elaborate braids, though her sleeves kept changing. She diminished and disguised her gem with an elaborate circlet. How she endured the metal mesh constantly ticking on the gem, Garnet could not comprehend.

"Oh, Rose," said Pearl, stepping into slippers which made her nearly as tall as Garnet. "Won't you come with me? It's going to be exquisite. All the great minds will be there. Why, this very night there could be a heretofore unknown innovation!"

Rose smiled every time. "You go ahead, Pearl. You know the ancient works much better than I do."

And then Pearl would disappear to a secret meeting or a public debate or a decadent feast. She would come back grimy from the setting of a printing press, or covered in plaster and paints and tallow from laying down a fresco, or simply starry-eyed from a private night-viewing party. Amethyst was soon appointed the duties of the boorish cousin — who quickly deflected the conversation whenever Pearl started to recite antique verses with no surviving copies or translations. Pearl abused the portals to practice court dances under the influential masters. Once she was mistaken for a youth on the Banke syde, and spent a few decades explaining to the others that the resulting play, or plays, were only loosely based on her persona.

The other Gems allowed it; they had never seen Pearl so happy on Earth. ("Or messy," said Amethyst.) If she disappeared into her sanctuary after every outing, it was forgiven. The only branches of study she refused to touch were alchemy and medicine. This was partly because none of them could picture Pearl returning covered in _those_ residues, and partly because she considered them verging on the fanciful. 

"Be serious; they don't even know that air has mass! And look at this gobbledegook that passes for writing. Anatomy at least encourages observational skill, but it's going to be a very long time before they put these galaxy-sized pieces all together. Particularly if they keep losing all the scholarship from the previous centuries. No thank you, I'll pass on reinventing the wheel."

It was Rose who went to those gatherings, her gem providing a powerful cowl-shaped veil to tame her abundant hair. Garnet usually followed her into these shadows. They had seen empires rise and fall before. Rose had wept. Now she watched silently. The thick forests she had traversed across continents were receding into patchworks. And everywhere humans exerted their creativity into the twisted shapes which had always attracted Rose, but which she was forbidden to touch.

Garnet took her away from it from time to time. Together they explored the Pampa; Rose made her a coat of firewort to keep her warm when the wind blew across the grass. Then Garnet taught her how to path-find in the vast savannas between the continental deserts. Rose loved it. It was her own menagerie on a massive scale. On the sound of rustling grass alone, Rose spent two rainy seasons. While Rose explored on her own, Garnet could settle behind the walls of the Great Stone House and keep an eye on the confluence of extensive trading routes.

They all missed how Pearl was gradually building a shell around herself. Between the humans' tribulations and Gems' attempts to repair or obtain at least one working warp pad, Pearl's behavior was the least of their worries.

Every now and then she would emerge, the _twang_ of enthusiasm still in the air, and share something amazing. "You'll love this! Hurry!" Garnet would always recall their first taste of polyphony inside a soaring dome. When all the instruments and choirs collided, even Rose pulled back her cowl.

Pearl was dancing on the tips of her toes. From beneath her hood, she mouthed, 'It's missing some elements, of course, yet the resemblance...!'

'Pretty close,' answered Garnet. People had been merging melodies for ages, but this was ... crashing-mountains sublime. Between them Amethyst took their hands and swung them through the crescendo. Rose rested her chin on Amethyst's head; Garnet could almost see the music conducting through Amethyst's body into Rose's chest.

 _Close._ The music soared, leaping and bounding up the thin columns. Almost reaching the sky.

*

The rest of the time, Garnet got it on with Amethyst.

If she were Pearl, no doubt there would be an underlying explanation about finding ways to process infinite sensations through an imperfect body. But simply put: it was fun. For every bit of trouble they got into, afterwards Garnet couldn't disappear to an isolated spot and kick a crater into the ground. There just weren't that many uninhabited regions left; these days humans tended to investigate the unusual instead of running away. But she _could_ go skin-to-skin with Amethyst, who was nigh unbreakable. And inside too, which Amethyst loved — Garnet could meld and lengthen fingers into any shape, and tune the vibrations until Amethyst was a quivering fluffy mess. 

Her biting phase aside, Garnet was pleased to find that Amethyst rolled with everything. More fascinating was that no matter how Amethyst shifted, she was sensitive in all the same places. She made the same noises when Garnet grabbed her by the back of her knees. She squirmed in the same way when the back of her ear was stroked at the same time as the muscle above her hip. Garnet even discovered why Amethyst liked to keep a navel, including on forms which didn't normally have one. (She'd never tell.)

And there were little things, like the way she made her flesh pillow-soft right where Garnet's cheekbones nestled. Amethyst probably thought she didn't notice. It was sweet.

Best of all, it was uncomplicated. If Amethyst wanted to arrange dainty sweet-beancakes all over Garnet's body, it was no big deal to sit still for a while. If Garnet walked in with what Amethyst liked to call a 'rager', they could be in each other's trousers in seconds. No position was too much of a stretch for Amethyst, so to speak. Garnet's control still occasionally wriggled off its leash, but Amethyst could get her to go easy in a hundred languages. In front of the other two, there were always other diversions, like Amethyst Bowling or Amethyst Toss. (They tried Amethyst Juggling exactly once before Rose discovered them and got upset.)

However they did it, Amethyst was a constant challenge. Garnet liked challenges.

Then one afternoon Garnet was balancing an armful of Amethyst's ass when Pearl walked into their quarters. As discreetly as possible, Garnet retrieved her other hand from the cat's-whisker-fine hair between Amethyst's thighs. Unfortunately she was not so quick to dislodge Amethyst's face from her own.

Amethyst came up for air. "Hey what up, Pearl!" From her perch she dipped her head back, and blinked at Pearl upside-down. "Or better yet, what's going down?"

Pearl clutched her conical straw hat as though it could hide more of her face. She only stuttered a little. "Have either of you been to Melaka lately?"

"Nah, I was riding the steppes with my horse-bros."

"I was at the cliffs of the Bizika." That had been a productive visit. Garnet hadn't needed to say anything, just to point a finger. And scale a sheer cliff while carrying a boat. "We're headed in that direction." Rose had arrangements with an old dance instructor on the south-east peninsula. All the Gems were invited.

"It's my fault, really, I should have run the simulations globally." Pearl collapsed cross-legged on the cushions. She took a long breath, and not only because the air was thin in the summer palace of Tsaparang. "The Sultanate, or should I say former Sultanate holds a geographic chokepoint in oceanic trade. If I had only visited earlier, I would have been able to add those data sooner. If any of us had gone, really, because the rumors alone were abundantly obvious."

Amethyst flipped over and off Garnet's arm, rolling next to Pearl. "Did it blow up or something?"

Discreetly Garnet unlocked a small lacquered puzzle box — which to the untrained eye looked to be made of tortoise-shell. A small rose glowed into existence. A moment later, two hands made of thorns entwined to capture its petals: Rose's salute. She had arrangements of a different sort in the temple garden of Saihō-ji. Though heavily veiled she could at least she could join them if needed. Garnet thought that unlikely.

"Amethyst," said Pearl. She had captured Amethyst's hands. Garnet was fleetingly relieved that Amethyst had already wiped her hands on Garnet's upper back. "Amethyst, when was the last time you went to your favorite continent?"

"Iaouh," Amethyst shrugged.

Garnet blinked. And blinked again. Her knuckles tightened.

Gently Pearl whispered, "Maybe we should go there now."

"All right," said Amethyst slowly. "Can I change my pants?"

"You may," said Pearl wearily. As Amethyst bounded away, she looked up at Garnet, who had just finished wiping her hands on her sleeves. "It shouldn't be too bad on the whole. They're only destroying each other, just on a more massive scale than before. And it won't be the first time empires have been lost."

"That's what we said at the beginning of our war," said Garnet. Pearl's face fell. Garnet came to stand beside her. "I was also going to say: we're still here. People will find a way too."

Given the urgency in Pearl's demeanor, Garnet skipped the ocean crossing and used another one of Rose's tools to squeeze them into the territories of The Four Lands. By the bustling lake, Amethyst hooked them up with ponchos and showed them how to change designs for unimpeded travel. Pearl quickly banished her straw hat and switched to a thick chullo.

Then they wandered. Amethyst appeared cheerful enough: monkeying around in cloud forests, tumbling down steep mountains, chasing vast herds across their grazing lands. However she chatted up every single human she met on the trail. They timed their visits to the urban centers to coincide with seasonal gatherings, and Amethyst mingled with the crowd all day and night. In smaller villages, Garnet would sit by the firelight while Amethyst played with the children or shared cups with the elders. Pearl always seemed to slip away to star-gaze, or so she said. At last Pearl suggested that they were affecting outcomes with what she'd dubbed the 'stranger effect', inuring the people to outsiders. After that, Amethyst stuck to the llama caravans who more than likely had already caught wind of what was coming.

Garnet noted how Amethyst avoided certain routes. She went nowhere near the ocean. 

Amethyst paused, then crunched through a dried fish head. "If I see any of them, I might rip them to shreds."

Garnet and Pearl exchanged a look.

They were back in the mountain paths when Amethyst spoke of it again. Pearl was reading a string full of knots; Garnet was examining a flower which had arrived by hawk, trying to decipher Rose's message on the petals.

"This is all Rose's fault," Amethyst declared. She was standing in the middle of a rope bridge above a deep gorge. She shook out her bag of trading items, rocking the bridge.

"Amethyst—!" started Pearl.

"It is!" insisted Amethyst. The bridge jerked. "What the heck can these people do before they keel over, anyway? Why should I care about a bunch of dumb lumpnuts? But now they're gonna do what they _always_ do with open land, and it _sucks_."

Garnet watched the bridge. She stayed put.

"Amethyst, I wasn't arguing with you," said Pearl, pulling at the side ropes. "Just get off that bridge before it snaps! We don't have Rose with us and it'll be awful if you fall."

"You're such a worrywart, Pearl," said Amethyst without any heat. Nonetheless she started hopping towards them. "They don't build these bridges to break. I bet they'll still be here..." She leaped the rest of the way past Pearl, bounced off the narrow path, and with a spray of rock shards sprang at Garnet.

The gauntlets were up and readily absorbed Amethyst's first blow. She rained punches on Garnet's raised hands for a full minute while Pearl stood agog.

Finally Amethyst bent her head between her knees, panting. Garnet stayed put.

When Amethyst stopped panting. Garnet tapped her nose with her thumb till she looked up. (Pearl turned away.) 

"The bridge is one thing," said Garnet in answer. She started down the path to the valley. "Rose will be here soon."

Behind her, Pearl recovered. "Are you all right, Amethyst?" There was a vague mumbling reply. "If it makes a difference, I'm recording absolutely everything for posterity. Even if it is pointless, we'll still be around for them. Long after that bridge rots away." Pearl jogged to catch up to Garnet. fiddling with the chullo straps. "And it's not as though we don't have experience with the same predicament."

Garnet only paused a moment. "Mm," she said.

By nightfall Amethyst had calmed down some. She wanted to turn north. Pearl was plotting their way through the known routes, her light shining oddly through layers and layers of bundled garments. 

Amethyst sadly gnawed on a tuber. "I can't believe it's all gonna go down the drain." She gobbled a bowl full of peppered insects. Garnet took the bowl away before she ate that too.

"Their stonework looks good," offered Garnet. Amethyst paused, then resumed gnawing.

"It was going to happen sooner or later. The simulations are quite emphatic this time." Pearl was bent over her display. Fixated on it, she got to her feet, Rose's portal tool in hand. "Well, I'd better get going."

In the dark valley, Garnet watched the twinkle of the display reflect off Pearl's eyes. And...

"Hang on."

Pearl looked up, and not down where Garnet had her by the ankle. "I have to go. I left some very, very important experiments back in my chambers."

"Aw, stay here, Pearl," pleaded Amethyst.

Garnet didn't release her. "Rose is on the way here. You can wait for her."

"No, I really must—"

"You're not going anywhere!" Amethyst had risen. She was also rising, her chest puffing up and up with every breath. "You keep telling me to be here and do this, then you flit away like you always do! You're always. Sneaking. Around!"

Pearl executed a turn so violent that Garnet had to let go before she injured her. "I'm sneaking around! What about you two! You think you're being subtle?"

Garnet looked at Amethyst. "Not really, no."

"We were only keeping it on the down-low because you asked us to!" Amethyst grinned a jaguar smile. "Or is it that I'm shaking it with Garnet—?"

Pearl advanced so quickly that her hat flew off. Something clinked on the pebbles. Amethyst just laughed, hopping out of arm's reach.

There was a flash of light. Rose had arrived.

Garnet leaped up to stop the fracas, but everything had stopped. Pearl was frozen. She was looking at Rose, who was staring at—

"Your gem," whispered Rose. She dropped the bundle in her arms. Her eyes began to fill. "Pearl, what's happened to your gem?"

As gently as possible, Garnet locked the fingers of her gauntlets around Pearl's wrists. Amethyst deflated; she jammed the rest of the tuber in her mouth and pattered after the fallen items. When she stood up again, she had Pearl's circlet hanging from a twig. It still sparkled with the remnants of Pearl's illusion.

Pearl's eyes were wide. Her gem, which should have been luminous as the full moon, was cloudy and dull. "Nothing. I'm just tired. From all the calculations."

"You're calculating what?" Rose asked.

Under their three gazes, Pearl wilted. "Everything. Anything to contact the Homeworld. To get us home. I would never have sent a signal without telling you first! Besides a little test signal. To see if it worked."

Only the sight of Rose's tear-stained face cooled Garnet's ire. A low growl escaped nonetheless. " _How did that happen to your gem?_ " she gritted out.

"The signal isn't strong enough, all right!" Pearl twisted around, trying to face Garnet. "We're in a galactic backwater! I couldn't divert power from the sanctuaries because they all needed their veils. So I used the power I had. I suppose... it wasn't enough either."

"Oh, Pearl, that's not the point." Rose approached. She combed Pearl's hair from her brow. Pearl wouldn't meet her eyes.

Amethyst piled the items at their feet, and held up the circlet. "Did you really mess up your gem just for that?"

"It's not...!"

"It's not corrupted _yet_ ," said Garnet. Even if Pearl's essence survived such a drastic power drain, the most disciplined gem would be tempted to start leeching power from anywhere or anything. Or anyone.

"I should have known something was wrong," said Rose, stricken. "Never mind as a Crystal Gem. As a friend..."

Pearl shook her head. "You were the one who was always leaving," she said to Rose.

 _Enough._ Garnet said, "Rose, can you heal it?"

This close, she could see Rose's brows draw down in a flicker of agony. "Pearl's gem has always been special..." She bent over Pearl and shut her eyes. A tear squeezed out, wobbled, splashed upon the tarnished gem— and slid off onto Pearl's brow. The only trace was a patch of smoothed, translucent skin. "It rarely cracks from the outside," whispered Rose. "I'm sorry, love."

Pearl sucked in her breath. The only way around that was forced regeneration. Garnet became hyper-aware of the pressure of her gauntlets.

"Whoa mama," Amethyst said. "We don't really have to do anything to Pearl, do we?"

"Whatever's necessary," Pearl said with a nervous laugh. "It's only a physical construct."

"No." Garnet dismissed her gauntlets. With one hand she kept Pearl's wrists behind her back. With the other she wrapped Pearl's shoulders and pulled her close. Regeneration normally wasn't a big deal. They'd all retreated to their gems many times since making their home on Earth. It was the arithmetic. "There's too few of us. Amethyst operated at half-strength for nearly two centuries while she recuperated."

Pearl was still thinking. "Regeneration within the gem might not take as long."

"Or it may not be as brief." A rush on new resources would soon mean a net surge in population. Pearl had herself had reminded them for ages that this would be the critical point. "If other enemies start popping up, we can't waste that kind of time."

Amethyst twisted her hair. "They could be sniffing our stashes right now!"

Pearl looked away. "This is all my fault. I've endangered all of us." Garnet could feel her droop. She adjusted to better hold her up.

"There might be another way," said Rose. She stepped forward, leaving a thin track of night-bloomers where her tears had landed. "I wasn't ready to show you this, but if it will save Pearl... it would be my honor."

Garnet only needed a moment. "Lead the way. Pearl, I'm going to teleport us, all right?"

"But..."

"No 'but's." Garnet turned her around and rested her chin in Pearl's hair. Slowly she hooked Pearl's arms under hers. "Hang on tight. Tighter." Pearl complied; she buried her face as though grief-stricken. Garnet raised her hands behind Pearl, and called on her powers.

A warm glow surrounded them as Rose opened her portal.

"I'll get the stu-uuff!" Amethyst gathered their things, and popped out an extra arm to salute the mountains. "We out!" A road of shimmering petals marked the way. Amethyst plowed through.

That left the two of them alone. "You didn't really think we'd hurt you, did you?" Garnet whispered. Pearl looked up sharply. Garnet tucked her close, and followed the scent of blooming flowers.

They appeared in a valley as sunny and happy as the previous was cold and dreary. The air, the very walls were thick with delicate roses. Garnet marked how even the minerals had been grown into colonnades, arches, thresholds in the shape of their insignia. Rose's plants contributed to the veil — loose petals drifted up and marked its ceiling.

"Welcome to my garden," said Rose, a touch bashfully.

"Rose... it's... unbelievable," Pearl murmured. She was getting weak in the knees. Garnet gathered up her legs and carried her.

"Woooo this is amaze-waze!" Amethyst rolled up the walls and popped back into form to tumble around Rose. "Why would you hide this pad? It's like," she whistled, high.

Rose giggled. "I didn't know if it would work." She brushed her hair, looking Garnet in the eyes. "And if it didn't, I had to be the one to destroy it."

"Is it safe?" Garnet asked.

"What's safe?" Pearl kept trying to squirm around for a good look. Then she heard the water. "Oh my stars, Rose, is that a fountain? Are those your—?"

A giant statue of Rose herself stood at the center of the healing pool. Garnet leaped the rest of the way, landing on the statue's lap. Eager mosses reached for her and Pearl, then subsided.

"Those are my tears," confirmed Rose.

"You synthesized your own lachrymal essence?!" Pearl was beside herself. She clutched at Garnet. "Do you realize everything that could have gone wrong? Do you realize... how _inspired_ this is? It's sheer brilliance!"

Rose smiled like a thousand suns. Yet she said, "Don't praise me yet, Pearl. I don't know if it's safe. I've tested it on my dear creations, and on myself. But everything here is imbued with pieces of myself. Like rarely rejects like." She bit her lip. "In order for the healing to work, it will have to seep into the center of your gem. You'll need to stay in the pool for an extended period."

Garnet met Rose's gaze. "And if it doesn't work?"

"It could very well do the opposite. Healing restores what's present. It doesn't distinguish between friend and enemy." Rose clasped her hands. "I'm sorry, Pearl."

"It has to be tested one way or another. I have to salvage something from this mess," said Pearl bravely. "I'll try to signal you if something's going wrong."

Garnet nodded. "Good. The three of us will be here." Then she raised Pearl a bit and kissed the corner of her lips.

"What," said Pearl, and Garnet dropped her into the fountain.

"Dayum, Garnet," said Amethyst.

Garnet leaped to the front edge. "You two take your places. And Rose?"

"Yes?"

"For the record, we would have helped you. You were right the first time. We shouldn't be doing things separately any more."

Rose nodded. "Of course, Garnet."

They waited for several long minutes. Amethyst flicked petals into the water. Garnet was a statue.

Rose spotted the change before either of them. The water around Pearl began to take on a cerulean hue. It grew brighter, and brighter. The wind changed, blowing petals in their faces. Garnet gritted her teeth. _Hold on._

Suddenly the entire fountain flashed. To Garnet's horror, she was totally blinded. To her left and right, Amethyst and Rose also cried out.

When the light cleared from her eyes, she saw the surface covered in scintillating bubbles. A mound of foam formed in the center. And a wave slowly arced out the roiling liquid, with Pearl rising to its crest.

Pearl turned her head. Her eyes were pure light. Garnet hardened her fists— and then Pearl blinked, and was herself again. "Oh my," she said.

"Whoa," said Amethyst.

 _All_ of Pearl flushed. "Are you stari— ahh!" The foam collapsed under her. She landed back in the fountain with a tremendous splash.

Amethyst guffawed. "Cannonball!"

"That's amazing. Did you see the waters turn blue?" said Rose. "Pearl, are you all right?" She reached out and pulled Pearl ashore.

"Yes. Thanks to you." Pearl shuddered, and managed to summon a thin robe.

"Towel," Rose called, and one of the vines whipped out with a fluffy cloth. "See, that shivering reflex is good for something."

Pearl threw her arms around her. "Oh, Rose."

"I toldja you were staying," said Amethyst.

Garnet put away her gauntlets and shook the petals from her hair.

* 

They sat at the fountain's edge and caught up. Rose combed Pearl's hair while she told them about building a megacomputer inside her sanctuary. It was theoretically possible with absolutely perfect crystal formations. If anyone could do it all by themselves, it was Pearl. For about ten minutes she insisted that the power shortfall had been the big mistake. Then Amethyst splashed tear-water in her face.

Rose had experimented for quite a while before developing not only a perfect copy of her gem's natural essence, but a way to keep it flowing out of the ground. "The spring is natural to this area, and comes up hot from deep in the crust. I grew crystal formations around it, so as time goes on the roots will actually deepen and protect the supply."

"And the heat from the water helps power the synthetic reaction!" exclaimed Pearl. She had stars in her eyes — more like the old Pearl. "Even the fountain water is at perfect temperature. It's remarkable, Rose. I don't think I've been in a more beautiful sanctuary."

Rose crossed her ankles and swung her legs, shyly pleased. Amethyst jumped into the silence by poking at Pearl's shoulders. "I don't know about perfect temp, 'cause you're freezing cold. Look, goosepimples! Ha ha!"

"A-me-thyst." Pearl caught Garnet's unchanged gaze, and curled up. "It tickles," she said in a smaller voice.

Amethyst just snickered. She changed her arm into a giant furry trunk, and slung it over Pearl's shoulders. Pearl huddled into the soft fur.

Rose looked to Garnet.

Garnet pursed her lips. She surveyed the achingly gorgeous garden. "To make your tears, you experimented on your minions?"

"Yes," said Rose.

Without a word, Garnet lobbed a pebble towards Rose. A dozen thorn-toothed creatures snapped at it from around Rose, startling Pearl; one crunched the pebble to powdered fertilizer and joined the others in growling at Garnet. Rose shooed them away, biting her lip.

Amethyst grinned. "Eh-hee..."

"I take it," Garnet said, looking up at the giant stone version of weeping Rose, "You didn't make this. You grew it."

Rose nodded curtly. She stared at her hands. "The tears only remain stable within a similar vessel." The song made the body and the body made the song.

"And you had to make it big because you're diluting it with the spring water."

Pearl covered her mouth. "Highly concentrated...!"

"I shifted to a larger size, and let the crystals grow and encrust me," said Rose. She gestured at the smaller statues. "Those were the tests."

Garnet attempted to take a calming breath. It really wasn't working. Rose's tears were from the very heart of her gem. Her very self. To produce a super-pure copy... needed a near-perfect copy. "And if you had managed to clone yourself? All by yourself, alone in this place, which you didn't tell anyone about?" That fracture would have been worse than Pearl's shadow. It was through the expansion beyond their selves that corruption most often took hold. Garnet knew all about shattering.

"You didn't tell Garnet?" said Pearl. Amethyst poked her. "I mean, yes, there's what I did, but at least you all know the location of my chambers."

Rose drew herself up. Garnet remained motionless. "If your gem had cracked, Rose Quartz, would like heal like? It's our greatest law: One Gem Is One. Would this fountain have been enough to put you back together?"

Amethyst absently chewed on a leaf, looking from one to the other.

"This garden needed to be built in case I fell in battle," said Rose.

There was a silence, broken only by the _shush_ of the fountain. 

"Buh?" said Amethyst.

"That's ridiculous, Rose," Pearl said, her voice high. "You've held your own many times before. Nothing of the sort would ever happen."

Rose shrugged. "I come late to war, dear Pearl. It doesn't suit me. What we've had over the last few thousand years were mere skirmishes. These gems are out to destroy us, not hold a ceremonial tournament. I don't think many of them would decide an outcome over a round of single combat." She sighed. "That was only going to work once, and only barely."

Garnet sorted through a number of possible replies. "You have long-range weapons."

"To stop an armada, and give us a fighting chance." Rose raised three fingers, and two battalions of green buds marched against each other. Fascinated, Amethyst stretched till her chin was on Pearl's knee. The succulent buds fired pods at wave after wave of the woody buds. "But our strategy requires us to get close enough to use the bubbles." The succulents began to encase the woody attackers in sap. The other woody buds flanked their column. Then Rose touched one of the succulents; the bud bloomed into a tiny pink rose. "And the enemy strategy—"

"Yikes," said Amethyst as the flower was overwhelmed by enemy forces.

Pearl squeezed Amethyst's hand. "It would be to target our only healing Gem. Rose is correct; we have to build in some redundancies."

Damn arithmetic. "I don't doubt the necessity," said Garnet. "It's that we must _add_ forces. Not risk subtraction." She stood over Pearl and rolled a lock of hair around her finger, warming it into a wispy tendril the way Pearl liked. She did the same to the other side, because Pearl liked symmetry. Blinking, Pearl touched them wonderingly. Garnet caught Amethyst's eye from her bed on Pearl's knee. "You're not growing anything in your sanctuary, are you?"

"Uhhhh, does a termite kingdom count?" Amethyst smacked her lips. "They're yummy. And they crawl 'round in my tummy."

"Gack," said Pearl.

"Don't worry, I've got 'em under control. Rose gave me this awesome bug juice goop."

Rose giggled until Garnet placed a hand in her hair. She smiled up as Garnet ruffled her hair. Garnet took a breath this time, and allowed herself to bask in the delicate cloying scent of Rose.

"You sell yourself short, Rose," Garnet observed. "You've been training too."

Rose shook her head. "I'll never be as clever or strong in a fight. It took centuries for me to come up with that."

Amethyst stuck her feet in the air. "When you're happy, we're all happy. That counts for something, doesn't it?"

"It certainly does," said Pearl. "In an entirely quantitative way. Even if it does sound romantic." She perked up. "In fact, I was going to ask you, Rose: would you wish to spar with me? I've always wanted to improve my technique in your fighting style. Now, don't say it! Of all people, _I_ should know that stylized forms are just as effective on the battlefield, if not more."

"My style is to hit 'em till they stay down," said Amethyst.

Rose slapped her cheeks. "Oh! I nearly forgot! There was a reason I came back when I did." She rushed over to where Amethyst had dumped their things. "I hope it's not too banged up— no, it should be fine," she said, as the bundle twitched and rustled. (Garnet stood at the ready.) Protective evergreen vines uncoiled from a long, curved wooden case.

Pearl made a noise between a gasp and squeak. She stood up, spilling an annoyed Amethyst onto the ground. "Rose, you didn't—!"

Rose bent her head below Pearl's shocked face. Her hair tumbled off her arms as she raised the wooden scabbard. "From the master's own workshop," said Rose.

Amethyst tried to poke it, and was swiftly dragged back by Garnet.

Pearl didn't seem to be able to touch it. Through her hair, Rose looked up and winked at her.

"How," Pearl said weakly, barely brushing the polished wood. Rose let go. Pearl balanced it by her fingertips, hardly daring to breathe. "How did you get past all the forces of the imperial court? This is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the entire world."

Rose smiled. That smile. "I called in some favors. Your collection wouldn't be complete without this. It is just the one sword, though—"

"Just the one sword!" Pearl was trembling. She got a grip on the scabbard. "In one sword is contained the mastery of the perfect melding of art and metallurgy!"

Garnet rolled her eyes. "Draw it, already!"

Pearl grew determined. There was that focus. "Stand back," she said, planting her feet. She held the scabbard slightly to the side, and in one motion drew the blade through the air with a sharp, ringing whistle. One petal dropped from the blade. In mid-air it tore in two.

As Amethyst jumped up and down under Garnet's hold, Pearl reverently sheathed the sword. She bowed to Rose. Then she was nose-to-nose with Rose, her grip on the scabbard so tight she was vibrating. "It's incredible," Pearl said in a dazed, euphoric voice.

"I think you're freaking her out, P," snorted Amethyst. 

Pearl collected herself with an effort. Then her wild grin faded. She turned to Garnet. "May I keep it?"

Garnet thought: _Still not the point, Pearl._ She and Amethyst closed around her. "It's Rose's gift to you."

Pearl's mouth twisted unhappily. "I don't know if I'm worthy of such an exquisite gift."

Garnet stayed Rose. "If you want to be, then teach Rose to be stronger. Maybe she'll teach you to rely on others. Remember," she said, and there was that pang again.

"Remember the song," finished Rose. "And how we sang it together." She touched Pearl's cheek. Amethyst got a good hold on Pearl's ribs.

Garnet said, "No matter how it happened, we're a team. And that makes us stronger." She held their shoulders.

In the center Pearl held the scabbard with both hands, her head bowed. Then with a tiny cry she dropped it and threw her arms around the Gems.

For the first time in months, Garnet relaxed. With a joyous smile, Rose gathered them all up in a warm embrace.

The petals fell around them.

And they were falling into a swirl, collecting in a vortex at the far end of the garden.

"What the what," murmured Amethyst, her face squeezed between Rose and Garnet. They all looked up.

There was a distant ring like a great crystal bell. Another illusion dissolved. And this time it was a welcome sight.

"Oh my," said Rose. "That wasn't there before." Absently she signaled her vines to give the sword back to Pearl, and began to glow, unsure if she should draw her weapon.

They surrounded the platform. Pearl touched its petal-strewn side with her toe. The warm updraft of energy sent a column of petals at them, and then dissipated.

" _It's a warp pad._ "

Amethyst lifted her hair to squint at it. "It's real?"

Garnet closed her mouth. Carefully she stepped into the center; she saw what she needed to see, and more importantly, she felt it, too. Just as carefully she stepped out of the light, which automatically switched off. "It is," she said.

"It was hidden here all this time?" said Pearl.

Rose was crying. They were tears of relief. "Whoever hid it meant for the veil to be lifted."

"We must've done something to deactivate it," said Amethyst. Suddenly she yanked at Rose's elbow, then Garnet's. "This is major mojo! What if the warp pads were in all the sanctuaries all this time?"

Pearl looked like she was about to faint. Amethyst hoisted her by the hips, cackling madly.

"When I scouted," said Rose to Garnet, "this was the best place of all to grow the garden."

Conditions had probably been perfect for millennia. "Well, we aren't the first ones on this planet."

Amethyst grabbed Garnet's leg. "Let's go north already! We can go anywhere, now. Road trip!"

"Sorry Amethyst." Garnet gave her noogies. "This means we have work to do."

Pearl came to attention. "We have to find and activate as many warp pads as we can."

"First we're going to your place," said Garnet.

Pearl was thrown. "...really?"

"Because," Garnet said firmly, "we need an accurate simulation of Rose's garden."

"I agree," said Rose. "When things grow, they're unpredictable."

"If we're going to build something, it has to last." Garnet punched her palm.

Amethyst hooted. "Can't let those puny humans outdo us!" She rolled onto the warp pad. And then slid off. "You don't have a warp pad in your place, do you, P?"

Pearl hesitated. Then Rose gestured for her to go on, and she drew her weapon. Petals gathered around its sharp tip, following the spiraling energies to form an eye around Pearl's gem. Pearl dipped, drawing a circle in the air with her toe, inscribing it into space with her spinning spear. 

Garnet inspected the gleaming portal. 

"You'll have to pardon the mess—" Pearl said, but Garnet was already through.

Above, the soaring chamber was just like Pearl: iridescent, with soft clouds and hard facets. At Garnet's feet, it was a different story. Piles of scroll tubes and towers of books formed a labyrinth of literature as far as the eye could see. Crystal growths the size of elephants speared through the center of the room. Like an annoying insect, there was a continuous buzz of power which made the spacious sanctuary seem oppressive.

Garnet couldn't move without toppling a wall. The other Gems tumbled into her with an 'oof.' 

"And you get on me for my hoard?" said Amethyst.

"There wasn't enough power for shelving, all right? Just step where I step," said Pearl. With that, she tiptoed and leaped and sprang from one spot to the next. The other three looked at each other.

Garnet crouched, opening her arms. "Ladies," she said.

"Thank you," Rose said, taking a seat . "Amethyst, get on before you touch something."

Amethyst sneezed herself into an opossum and sat on Rose's lap. Garnet carried them to the clearing around the main console. "Pearl," she warned. "Only turn on what you need for the simulation. And we'll provide the power for you."

The buzz subsided. The entire room dimmed to a crepuscular glow. Pearl picked her way into the heart of the device where the remaining activated crystal shone like a small moon. Rose followed with opossum-Amethyst on her shoulder. 

Weary, Garnet sat at the base. Rose spared her a glance. Garnet left them to it. Holograms lit the clouds above their heads. She stared into the half-dark, keeping watch for her Gems.

* 

It felt like ages later when Pearl finally shut off the console (much to Amethyst's disappointment, as she'd wanted to play with the holograms.) As the crystal winked out, the ceiling brightened with a skyful of sharp starlight.

"The structure of Rose's garden is just about perfect," Pearl reported. She seemed hesitant to join them, especially as Rose plopped down behind Garnet and started rubbing her forehead.

It was Amethyst who pulled Pearl in. "Oh no you don't, you're with us." There was a scuffle as Amethyst's arms kept trying to coil like snakes around Pearl's legs. Pearl was eventually subdued into a cozy ball with Amethyst's belly as a pillow.

Rose's head-rubs were the best. Garnet was far too relaxed. She still wanted to split something in two. Instead she felt around and found Pearl's wrist. In the midst of Rose's curls and Amethyst's warm nap-breaths, Garnet stared up and felt for a pulse. It wasn't in the touch, or the pressure... it was... the beat...

There.

Pearl stared up at her constellations. Her voice was a whisper. "We could only view the inorganic portions. The living parts would be too complicated even for the most powerful processor."

Rose made a surprised noise.

Pearl whispered on about energy states and biofeedback and ecologies and quantum flight paths. Her stars slowly swung around, like the room was rotating. Like any of them needed variations of heartbeats.

Amethyst snuffled. Pearl trailed off, waiting. Then Amethyst said, "You were pretty in your skin, Pearl. Didn't you used to swim in the ocean?"

Pearl gulped. Her hand twisted out of Garnet's grasp— and slipped back in, her slender fingers curling around Garnet's. "That was a long, long time ago."

"Next time you regenerate, don't wear so many layers." Amethyst yawned. "Hides your awesomeness."

Garnet squeezed Pearl's hand. She didn't wince.

Rose turned her thumb just so and her fingertips became coated with a faintly perfumed oil. "We could go to the ocean on a holiday. People can't reach those depths. And the local dwellers make their own lights." Her movements slowed for a moment. "Actually that might be the perfect place for a sanctuary."

Pearl exhaled. "I suppose I'll have to shut all this down."

Said Garnet, "These places can't be operated until we've secured power sources for them. And once they are operational... they're going to attract our enemies." She leaned into Rose's neck stroking. "Rose, your garden's requirements?"

"As long as the Sun shines, it's self-sustaining. Don't worry, Pearl. We'll find a way to power this place. It's too magnificent to destroy."

"I suppose there is a certain advantage to not making it a huge target for our enemies," Pearl said. She raised a finger. "When near, appear far!"

Amethyst looked up. "Hey, Garnet. You have a sanctuary?"

Garnet shrugged. "I hang out with you three."

"AWwww."

"That's adorable, Garnet," added Rose.

"Oh, stop it. Save it for the other warp pads."

"That raises the obvious question," said Pearl. "How did we unveil the warp pad?"

Garnet shrugged. "I sensed no energy surge. Maybe it was what we were doing at the time."

Amethyst got that devious look. "Garnet! Stuff Rose's ears." As Garnet reached up to plug Rose's hearing, Rose agreeably trilled a little ditty. Amethyst sat up and grabbed Pearl's face. Her eyes were huge and earnest. "Pearl."

"Y-yes?"

"If you wanna shake it with us, you could totally join in." Amethyst grinned.

"I... but...!" Pearl tried to look everywhere but at Amethyst, but on either side of her were Amethyst's thighs.

"Why not," said Garnet under Rose's singing.

"C'mon, it'll be fun." Amethyst bent until her hair tangled with Pearl's. Within that curtain, she said, "We're not that different from humans — we get one shot at this, too. Make it count, Pearl." Pearl's eyes had squeezed shut; Amethyst pecked a kiss on her nose, and sat up, giggling.

Garnet dropped her hands from Rose.

"Thank you for the invitation," said Pearl weakly.

Rose finished the last bar of her song before speaking. "I don't want to know what that was about. But you have my approval."

"Haw haw." Amethyst looked around. No warp pad. "Welp, didn't work! But I woulda said it anyway." 

Laughing, Rose tried a monstrous hug. Pearl lead them in a four-part harmony. The stars wheeled on above their little party, and on the surface nothing seemed to happen. Amethyst put a fist to Garnet's arm. "What about you, Garnet?"

"I've been thinking."

"Oooh— ow." Amethyst got a light shove.

"Skin. On these constructs. On other worlds, we might not need it." She felt Pearl entwining their fingers. "It keeps us separate. Yet at the same time, we feel with it."

Rose rested her hands on Garnet's shoulders. "We can merge with each other just the same as when we were pure energy. Garnet, I have the data— what you asked for. We ran it through the simulations. It's not merging with others which corrupts the gems."

Pearl's grip tightened. "It's being apart."

Garnet lifted her arm so she could enclose Amethyst under her elbow, and still hold on to Pearl. She felt Rose settle at her back. Her family. "We all bring something different to the fight. Being our own people isn't the problem. We must keep reaching out to each other. It won't be easy; it's not supposed to be. That's what having skin means, I think."

There was a hush. 

And then a fluttering of wings... no, it was paper.

"Oh no, my books!" Pearl sprang up as another veil fell, and a warp pad popped into existence, tossing papyrus and parchment alike into the air. With a rumble, a line of books went down like dominoes.

"We got a live one!" Amethyst chortled. She leaped after Pearl. Rose caught her by the collar and told her to clean her hands before she touched Pearl's things.

In the midst of the chaos, Garnet got up. Stretched the limbs of her body. They were on a roll, now. And it was just as well, because there would be a storm coming.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Please add "approximately" to everything.)    
>  1500 CE Black Death in Europe: Renaissance, [high shoes](http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/clothing-and-jewellery/), origins of ballet, playhouses of London's Bankside, ref Arab and monastic scholarship, Patagonian Pampas, African veld, city of Great Zimbabwe, later polychoral music in San Marco di Venezia.    
>  Then: [Ruins of Tsaparang Dzong](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tsaparang-ruins_of_ancient_capital_of_Guge_Kingdom_03.JPG) (inspired Shangri-La?), Straits of Malacca, likely Tatars, [Tujia](http://www.ethnic-china.com/Tujia/tujiaintro.htm) cf Three Gorges Dam, Indochine, [Saihō-ji (Koke-dera)](http://www.japanesegardens.jp/gardens/famous/000001.php) "Moss Temple", Incan Empire.    
>  Spoilers "An Indirect Kiss", [The Science of Swords](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/assignment-impossible/2012/11/15/the-science-of-swords-the-sound-of-approaching-doom/), illusion turn, ref Sun Tzu.    
> 


	5. Chapter 5

 

Humanity was beginning to accelerate. Advances were magnified all the greater. Progress leaped all the further. Cruelties destroyed more than ever before. They could no longer measure in centuries or even decades; the world could change in the course of a solar year. And with every warp pad, every enhancement, every surge of power, the Gems drew more enemies. It was like standing under an avalanche. 

At first their attackers came one by one. Then came the swarms. Beings that weren't even gems to begin with risked the atmosphere to challenge them. Some gems managed to find each other in the depths of space and teamed up against them. Their enemies might pop out of a cloud, burst from the ground, or even try to crawl under their skin. The Gems took the fight to the polar regions, underwater, into storms at sea, alluvial swamps, calderas, lonely mysterious lakes. Sometimes they had to use the humans' wars as cover; Rose wasn't the only one unnerved by those missions.

When the dust settled, and everything bubbled away, they still had to mop up. It seemed rather pointless since the humans were soon rollicking through, but Rose insisted. Amethyst proved quite skilled at making up distractions for the humans. Garnet and Pearl took care of the bubbled gems. Privately Garnet was relieved that the galactic warp pads weren't functional. For the time being they could focus on enemies, not enemy reinforcements.

Then gradually Pearl began to realize that she was for all purposes under house arrest. Amethyst accompanied her everywhere, but that was nothing new. After a hard day of taking on their cosmic foes, Pearl liked to curl up and read a book anyway. For everything else, they now had a swarm of Rose's bugs to listen in on news and events of historical import. And who was going to argue with Garnet if she put her foot down?

Then Rose and Amethyst went off to see yet another speech that Pearl had wanted to attend. Pearl confronted Garnet. Garnet mentioned her hibernating computer.

Pearl stewed for another few years before bringing it up. She and Garnet had been wintering in an abandoned pueblo. The complex overlooked the mounds, kiva, and walls of a half-dozen other settlements of various eras. Rose had furnished it with a small library, but apparently Pearl didn't find the quiet desert as soothing as Garnet did.

She had worn a groove in the floor when she stopped in front of Garnet. "Why am I the one being punished?"

"And not Rose?" said Garnet mildly.

"Yes! Perhaps I went about it in the wrong way, but how is that any worse than what Rose did? She was seeding that garden for centuries. Anything could have happened in all that time! And she never mentioned a word of it to any of us."

"True," said Garnet.

Pearl opened her mouth, her finger wavering in the air. She stopped. "It simply... doesn't seem consistent."

"Your punishment?"

"Yes." She crossed her arms.

Garnet permitted herself a small smile. "What makes you think you're being punished?"

Pearl stiffened. "I beg your pardon?"

Garnet got up from the earthen seat. "The difference between what you did and what Rose did is that she had a contingency if something went wrong. That garden has no natural exits besides Gem-powered ones. She was prepared to seal herself up to protect us."

Pearl was silent for a while. Her toe swung like a pendulum on the floor. "I suppose you think I'm terribly selfish."

"I think," Garnet said, drawing closer, "that you nearly drained your gem into an empty husk just so we could all get home. That doesn't sound selfish to me. That sounds like you need to rest."

Pearl was anything but soothed. "You're doing this to protect me?! I'm a Gem warrior, like you. I don't need to be coddled."

Garnet took off her spectacles. "Rose was right about you. Your gem is special. Even without my sight, I can sense the shadow. Your gem needs more time."

"Nonsense."

"What about the last battle, when that scum tried to go after you?"

"I was holding the Key at the time."

"I was right in front of it, and I was holding the Gate." Garnet stood over Pearl, loose-limbed, close enough to breathe on her gem. Pearl raised her brows uncertainly. Garnet offered her hands. "Dance with me."

Pearl's eyes widened. "What?"

"Dance with me," repeated Garnet. 

"There's no music," said Pearl automatically.

"Yes, there is," said Garnet. 

Pearl placed a hand on Garnet's; the other lightly touched her hip. "Which steps?"

"No steps. I'll lead."

In the stillness, there was only the scrape of their feet and the whispering of the wind down the canyon and along the dry arroyo. _Forget gentle, try slow_ , Rose had said. This was the slow ache of tectonic movement, but Garnet could try. 

They were both too stiff at first. Pearl was practically vibrating with tension. Garnet kept thinking of how delicate Pearl was under her hands. In time Pearl became more malleable. Her fingers curled. Her shoulders drew back. Garnet inched her hand up to just under Pearl's ribcage and steered her into a different beat.

Pearl flared as she fought the change, but after a pass or two she caught on to the syncopation. She tried to shuffle ahead; instead Garnet picked up her hand and channeled her into a turn.

They pulled closer together. "Do you feel the music now?" said Garnet.

Looking away, Pearl whispered to Garnet's shoulder, "I thought I was doing the right thing."

Garnet nearly missed a step. "If humans knew about the Gem Homeworld, they would want to go there too."

"I suppose." At least Pearl didn't seem to be reacting badly. She sounded wistful. "Rose said something to me a while ago, somewhere in the midst of disaster. She said when humans encounter awful things, they want to leave for a better place."

Garnet wet her lips, and dipped her head just so. "Pearl, wouldn't you rather be here? With us?"

Pearl looked up, unintentionally drawing ever closer. Garnet willed herself not to bridge the distance.

And gradually Pearl began to realize what Garnet wanted to do. To her credit, she kept dancing. "Garnet! Are you trying to—!"

"May I kiss you?"

Maybe that had been too fast.

Pearl's lips tightened like she didn't know if she should smile or frown. "Why me? Or is this... 'why not Pearl'?"

"I've always wanted to," said Garnet truthfully. Now Pearl was somewhere between shock and disbelief. They were still dancing across the floor, their pace unconsciously quickening. "And Amethyst was put out that you didn't take us up on our offer."

"And why is she not here?" Pearl's voice rose, close enough to Garnet that she could feel the pleasant gust against her cheek.

"Maybe she wasn't sure if she could hold back." Now Pearl looked like she truly didn't believe it. But she wasn't letting go. On half impulse and half nerves, Garnet grinned. "You still think this is punishment? I've had a lot of practice."

"What, with Amethyst?" For a moment Pearl was pure outrage. Then she grabbed Garnet's jaw and pulled her in.

Garnet was so surprised that she froze for the first couple of seconds. Pearl was relentless, coming at her from every angle, finding every weak spot and exploiting them mercilessly, her smooth lips peppering with kisses one moment, languorously tasting the next. Garnet decided not to chase her; she waited, kissed with slow precision, waited again, on and on until she could feel Pearl succumbing to the slow tempo. Garnet didn't even have her eyes open — Pearl was melting under her hands, from nape to sinewy back to her calves. 

The last of which Garnet was rubbing with her ankle. Garnet blinked, trying to get her bearings before they toppled and took the house down with them. Literally. Somehow she navigated them to the bedroll. (With a raunchy laugh, Amethyst had assured her that it was extra padded.)

Pearl clung to Garnet's neck, suddenly unsure. "Are we really...? I don't know..." she trailed off. Garnet couldn't discern if that was indecision or admitting a lack of knowledge. Or both. 

"I've never been with you before," Garnet said. It was a struggle to form words. Even Pearl's disheveled hair was turning her on. "I don't know either. We'll just play it by ear." Oh, Pearl's ear. Garnet had to steal a nibble.

Pearl was trying to glance at the bedding and at Garnet at the same time. "Wait a minute. Wait! Did you really keep me close just so you could try this with me?"

"No, it was to get you to relax. This is a side benefit." Garnet kissed her bare shoulder. "Let me put it this way— if we told you that you had to relax, you would twist yourself in knots trying to do it."

"You're probably... right... oh, right there," murmured Pearl. "Do you really think we ought to?"

That was it. " _Why must you and Rose constantly make me_ talk _so much?_ " Garnet buried her hand in Pearl's hair and hauled her into the kiss she'd wanted to give her in the first place. The very density of the air changed around them. With every lunge she could taste Pearl, sweet and salty and glistening with starlight. If they stopped right here, at least Garnet would have this to carry till the end of time.

 _Pearl. Pearl. Pearl._ Garnet hoped she could feel the beat of that drum.

Pearl's lips stayed parted as they disengaged. Reluctantly Garnet gave her some of that personal space. Though not too much — Garnet was imagining Pearl turning into a bird and flying away.

"Let's," Pearl said faintly. She cleared her throat. "Let's. Ah. What should we do first?"

"Clothes off," Garnet said. In a flash, Pearl obeyed; Garnet followed suit. They stood there before each other for so long that Garnet thought she could count Pearl's capillaries. "Touch if you want."

Pearl's delicate fingers were like lightning on pins. Garnet heaved. "Pearl," she said, more gruffly than she intended. "Are you afraid of me?"

Pearl nodded. Her hands halted right on the lower half of Garnet's breasts.

"Good." Garnet advanced. "Do you like me?"

"—yes. Yes, of course I do!"

"Better," said Garnet. She laid her down on the bedding; surprisingly the top sheet was silk. Garnet made herself not straddle, instead stretching beside Pearl and leaning into a kiss. "Pearl," she whispered, "this isn't like paintings or books or some boastful cock of the coffeehouse. I'm going to kiss you again."

"Mm," said Pearl.

Garnet did so as Pearl learned the terrain. She was touching nearly everywhere. Thoroughly. Garnet remembered why she had hesitated for so long. Amethyst was fundamentally careless; every time was practically a first time. If Pearl learned something, she possessed it so completely that Garnet shuddered to think of what she might do to her.

But she was willing to find out.

In the distance there was a flash. Heat lightning. It was going to rain. 

They kissed and kissed. Pearl figured out all the ways she could place her hands; Garnet did all she could to attenuate her rhythm, either slow and sonorous or so frenetic that all the jolts smoothed out. Clouds rolled in. The only sign of Pearl's powers slipping was the radiance suffusing the room. Garnet could barely keep herself in check, particularly when she was touching Pearl.

In the middle of her excruciatingly pleasurable catalog, Pearl figured out that they were dancing in the horizontal. With a manic smile she wrapped her limbs around Garnet and began the counterattack. Thunder echoed through the canyon as they rolled from end of the room to the other, bricks nearly jarring loose and dust dislodging from the ceiling. They twisted this way and that, sprites of energy snapping from their flesh, the air blasting in waves with every arced spine, their bones playing the floorboards like an instrument. Pearl played keep-away with her mouth, her laugh ringing out as Garnet snapped at whatever was in reach.

Of course it was strategy which helped Pearl relax. Garnet didn't mind. She hadn't heard that laugh in thousands of years. Besides, it was Garnet who ultimately won — she captured the prize: Pearl's moan.

She was just barely the victor, though. Tangled in the sheets in the middle of the room, Garnet loomed over Pearl, snorting steam into the thick air. Without a word she grabbed Pearl's hand and slid them down, towards the heat about to rage out of control. Garnet's shoulders shook. It was dangerous to let it go this long. And Pearl... was more than she'd imagined...

Pearl was shaking out of her grasp. Garnet understood. The heat was boiling off her sweat down to bare skin, but below the line of her hips— "Cover. My hand. With yours," Garnet got out, before burying a groan into the floor. Between them Pearl adjusted until the cool palm of her hand flattened over Garnet's.

A gasping cry escaped Garnet's mouth as she touched herself. Her parts were rather simple — dictated by Amethyst's easy desires — but Garnet had honed the shape of her fingers to exacting specifications. She convulsed; that tremor shook the walls, rattled the sagebrush, knocked sand from the canyon ledges.

"Oh," said Pearl. She hadn't let go. Her hand was level with Garnet's wrist, and while she touched nothing, every move, every change in pressure, every slide and push was transmitted.

Garnet caught sight of Pearl's flushed stare. "Soon," she assured her, and curled into a groan. Her free hand formed a fist and left a burn on the scratched-up floor. Each time their breasts rubbed, their knees bumped, every time Pearl's cheekbone brushed hers, Garnet jerked as though pleasure were a punch.

The last thing Garnet remembered was Pearl holding on. _Pearl held on._

*

Moments later, Garnet opened her eyes. Pearl was still under her, a stunned look on her face. Then she blinked, glanced down, and with one hand lifted Garnet off her.

"Sorry," said Garnet. With a puff, she evaporated the liquids off her body. Then she meandered into a collapse on top of Pearl.

Outside it began to rain.

"So. Er." Pearl was drawing designs on Garnet's back, and it was driving Garnet crazy. "That was... Are you all right, Garnet?"

"Never better. Give me a minute." Garnet looked up and exhaled noisily a few times. When she looked down again, Pearl had covered her torso with the nearest sheet. Garnet sighed. She sat up, and offered a hand. "Want to dance?"

Pearl took her hand, looking dubious. "Like this?"

Garnet bared her teeth. "I've already seen all of you." She pulled her up. "Come on. You don't have to do all that your first time. Just needed to let off some steam."

Pearl surveyed Garnet like she'd known of all her body was capable of, but until now she hadn't _known_. Helpfully Garnet put her hands on her hips.

Carefully approaching, Pearl took Garnet's hands. Placed one upon her side. Garnet waited as Pearl arranged their feet, just so.

This time the music was sweet and easy. They moved across the room, Pearl dragging a sheet wrapped around one leg and not seeming to care. The rain muffled the creaks and shushes and the sounds of their occasional kiss.

"You never wanted to dance with me before," Pearl said softly. "Not outside of a battle."

"You insist on having audiences for your dances," said Garnet. "I wanted to dance with you."

Pearl drew herself closer, and Garnet obliged by holding her tight. They were fit together in a most erotic way, hip to hip, Pearl's toes light and lifted between Garnet's. Yet all Garnet could concentrate on was the steady wing-beat of Pearl's heart. 

"I'm not sure I can take you up on that invitation," Pearl murmured. "In theory it's like a gem fusion, but in practice... and with Amethyst."

"Not that relaxing?"

Pearl gave a tittering laugh. "No, not in the least. I thought— I thought your desire was going to crush me."

Garnet clamped down before saying it nearly had. "You'll have plenty of time to find your own groove. All the more reason to keep fighting. So we'll have that time."

"And you get on my case for trying dangerous things," sniffed Pearl. "The fact is I'm not like you two. I can't simply do this to pass the time."

"I won't pretend to know what goes through Amethyst's head. She does follow you around rather frequently."

"To entertain herself at my expense," grumbled Pearl.

Garnet stole a kiss. "Amethyst could entertain herself with puppet-hands. Or she could trail the rest of us around instead." Pearl looked intrigued. Always a good look. "Are you going to take her on?"

"Maybe. Sometime. I do have some moves I can try on her now," said Pearl thoughtfully. And a touch wickedly. Then her eyes widened. She pulled back to look at Garnet. "Wait, you... you're... is Amethyst...?" She glanced down between their legs. "Please tell me she can stick to one shape at a time."

"Not all that is for my comfort," said Garnet flatly. "The mammaries insulate and cool my pectorals. As for the rest, it's more aerodynamic. And I'm not fond of hydraulics. Not to mention," she chucked Pearl's chin to swing her gaze back up, "this body is where my song led me. I imagine it's the same for Amethyst."

Pearl persisted. "But is she—?"

"She's flexible. And durable." Garnet grinned. "But I don't kiss and tell."

From brow to collarbone, Pearl turned an interesting shade. "I wasn't...! I'm just not sure I'll know how to stop her, if need be."

"She's the one who stops me." Garnet shrugged at Pearl's raised brows. "The trick with Amethyst is to be firm. If she's in that mood, she doesn't want to play you; she wants to play _with_ you."

An idea began to flicker behind Pearl's eyes. "You mean, I could take the lead with Amethyst?"

Garnet just smirked. "I wasn't supposed to tell you this — I'll say it anyway. We really do want to be with you, Pearl, in the way that you want." Pearl nodded; they both knew those were Rose's words. "We all miss the way things were. Even Amethyst. But you know once you get used to it," she kissed Pearl's lips, "it's not so bad."

Pearl sighed, and tucked herself under Garnet's chin. "I promise I'll try to do better. To relax, I mean. Between our deadly battles."

"Good." Garnet peeked down. "So while we're relaxed, may I touch your ass?"

Pearl pulled up to her full height and glared at Garnet.

"Too fast?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Loosely based on San Lazaro Mission, NM, USA


	6. Chapter 6

 

On the surface, humans played empire-and-colonies: with people, with things, with places, with every concept in their minds. Meanwhile, the Crystal Gems faced off against enemies who wanted to colonize them all: planet, Gem, and song entire. As they slogged through battle after battle, it almost seemed as though the humans were the ones lapping them. Amethyst dreamed of all the banquets and festivals she had missed. Pearl had no time to catch up on her reading. Rose had the terrible luck of arriving too late to save some peculiar specimen, beast and human alike.

They were now checking the galactic warp pads twice a year. Every single one was still cold. Same as the last thousand years.

Complicating matters was the new tactic of gem monsters hiding among humans, using everything from mimicry to object transformation. There was no shortage of people, these days. And a barrage of human weapons could sufficiently slow a Gem warrior. Pearl and Rose were working on a viable detector. In the meantime, the Crystal Gems did their best to blend into the population. Amethyst spent a good decade coaching them on disguises. She herself worked as a spy and envoy, ideal if only because she could conjure extra limbs and cavities as suited the situation. Garnet found work wherever there was need for muscle and force without a lot of talking. Whether as hunter or hunted, they could (eventually) set up a confrontation with any rogue gems.

The advantage was that they were in a better position to come to the aid of humans. And people quite often returned the favor, even in the midst of dangerous gem battles. The disadvantage was they could only save so many. Quite often rescuing one group could lead to the demise of another. So many new variables were active that as long as they didn't abuse their powers, their effect on the energy balance was just as random as that of a flailing lepidopteran. Pearl no longer fretted about altering history. Instead she joined with revolutionaries and inventors, bestowing her patronage on as many artists as she could.

Rose was slowly falling behind in her role on the team. It went deeper than her continued reluctance to fuse (though she did manage it with Pearl, in a pinch). She was overwhelmed; they all were. Too many horrors came along with the wonders, and for the first time it all flooded in at a rate greater than a small circle of Gems could process. _If_ their contingent were larger — now there was an idea a thousand years too late. It was to this very problem which Rose applied her individual talents. Her every free moment was spent trying to heal and purify the captured gems.

Whenever Garnet visited their underground cache, the possibilities of that mass were tantalizing. If even a fraction of those gems came over to fight alongside them, the tide would certainly turn in their favor.

Yet every time Garnet found Rose asleep amidst a cloud of bubbles, it was clear they would have to make do in absence of her usual balance. All of them were now prone to certain tangents (allowable only because of Rose's bugs were also trackers). Garnet went on late-night walks in a form three times her usual size. Pearl maintained at least one identity in human society far beyond a human lifespan — until some writer found her out. Rose caught the bad habit of pretending to be a statue along waterways and in public fountains; they had to "steal" her back a few times.

Amethyst spent a few decades as a nonverbal cat-beast. A blink of an eye to a Gem, but they were the longest decades of Pearl's existence.

"What is she saying?!"

Amethyst didn't seem to have a daily limit on vocalizations.

"Here, kitty." Garnet crouched to coax the feline Amethyst closer. Amethyst paused. Then a paw at a time, she approached, thick tail swishing. Garnet stared intently; Amethyst stared back with nictitating eyes. "Mmm. Mm-hm. I see."

"Well?" Pearl tapped her feet.

"Scritchies," Garnet announced.

"Agh!" Pearl stormed out.

For her own sanity, Garnet did stop trying to figure out what was going on with Pearl and Amethyst. Amethyst did observe Pearl's privacy when it came to matters of intimacy, but everything else remained fair game. And Pearl had a tendency to turn animosity into foreplay, which just incited Amethyst even more. All Garnet could tell was that Amethyst refused to shift into a larger form when she was with Pearl. This forced Pearl to literally get down to her level... or stay upright. Except Pearl only allowed exterior contact with her physical form; she was constantly crossing her legs every time Amethyst tried to scale her. She was also loathe to carry Amethyst if that meant occupying both her hands.

Garnet gave them another century to figure out wall-sex, and then she'd step in.

As for Garnet, the time for play was over. They had bigger problems.

"We have big problems," said Pearl. They were strolling through one of the many parks in Wien, unremarkable in the crowd of tourists with their parasols and morning coats. (Amethyst had overindulged at the inn, and Rose had yet to see this garden. Pearl had already toured the place twice.) 

"The power expenditures?" said Garnet.

"Once we activated the warp pads in each sanctuary, they all began to draw power. Not a great deal! They're not meant to be energy sinks." Pearl leaned in. "However, because we moved most of the sanctuaries, they're drawing more than usual. Now, when sanctuaries are weakened, their overall power levels go down. In theory we could draw power away from the veils—"

Garnet frowned. "We do not want to do that." Never mind the danger to humans. If a veil fell now, there were several gem creatures waiting to take over or even devour a sanctuary.

"Indeed. Now, if the sanctuary is whole, functioning, and generating power as usual, there's no problem."

Amethyst burped. Though she did cover her mouth. "The joint's ganked up."

"Exactly," nodded Pearl. "Too many of them have either suffered attacks or fallen into disrepair. If we're busy fighting battles, and defending... people, even if we had the means to fix them, we wouldn't have the time."

Rose was dismayed. "I thought you said they could be saved."

Pearl looked away. "I know you're working as fast as you can, Rose, but even you can't keep up. And some of those structures are so complex— it would take several teams, and several centuries, to get them operational again."

"So what's our plan? Remove the warp pads? Reset their power levels?" Rose looked out over the great reflecting basin, lined with the visages of gods and nymphs from lands far from this place. She took a crust of bread and tossed it to the lurking waterfowl.

Garnet came up beside her. "The warp pads need to stay functional. They're secure. Our own portals have attracted enemies before." It was no fun to pop out of one's portal into a full-scale attack.

Pearl brushed her hair nervously. "It's trans-dimensional repair. We would need to be... in our original forms. And even then we might not be able to... I'm sorry, Rose. If it goes on like this, we'll be facing a power deficit because of sanctuaries which don't even work."

Amethyst was sliding back and forth on the gravel. Garnet reached over and steered her back in. "What'd I miss? Are we smashing up the sanctums again?" She blinked. "Wait, we are? I thought that would kill everybody here. Except us."

Pearl hadn't taken her eyes off Rose. "That original calculation was based on sanctuaries at 85 percent, at minimum 70 percent. If the power levels are low enough, containment would be possible."

"We tried," said Garnet.

What was most discomfiting was the sight of Rose under the clear sunlight, surrounded by the people she loved, her expression full of devastation— and her eyes dry. "We tried," repeated Rose faintly. "Whatever needs to be done, I suppose."

"In the future, we could rebuild them," said Pearl stoutly.

"Yah, when the war's over," said Amethyst. She tossed a pebble close to the birds squabbling over the last crumbs.

Garnet said, "Rose, the time we bought wasn't for nothing. We've searched every sanctuary from top to bottom. We know their strengths and weaknesses. Everything that can be saved, we've saved it."

Pearl gripped Rose's arm, and shook her gently. "This world is about to turn a corner. Look around! We won't need to depend on the sanctuaries for much longer. You always said we should put our faith in human beings, and you were right."

Rose tried to smile for Pearl, for Amethyst. But she couldn't fool Garnet.

She lagged behind as they meandered among the aggressively shaped vegetation. Rose wore her gem in plain view with a sash of ribbons; in the dappled shadows its glow was redder than usual. The other two were bickering over a proposed side-trip of Amethyst's. Garnet quietly asked to see Rose's gem.

Rose obligingly tilted her parasol as Garnet touched her, gem to gem. The beat wasn't faint. If anything it fluttered too quickly.

Garnet took her hand away. Overcome, Rose looked aside, tears coming to her eyes at last.

"Sorry, Rose," said Garnet. It didn't seem right that Rose would be so ill-at-ease in a garden, in a pleasantly milling crowd of humans. Garnet imagined the situation wasn't easy on Rose.

"I want to leave here," said Rose, her voice muffled through the frills of the parasol. "They'll just have another war, sooner or later."

Garnet nodded. She advanced on the others and lifted them by the elbow. "Let's go." 

They entered the garden maze and didn't come out.

*

Not long after, they were engaged in the most intense gem battle in centuries. It had been an ambush, which was bad enough. Garnet got herself captured, which was worse.

Garnet took a deep, steadying breath. She was not calm at all. She'd managed to put a crack in her restraints, except what was restraining her were her own gauntlets. The monster was embedded into the sanctuary wall with a direct line to its energy. Every movement forced power into her gems, expanding them in the creature's manacle-tail. 

The more she wanted to smash, the tighter it got.

"Hold on, Garnet!" Pearl yelled below. "We're coming to get you!"

Amethyst tangled a half-dozen pincers in her whip. "Duh, 'course we're comin'! Rose, cover me!"

Rose aimed. She had been trying all battle to avoid the supporting columns.

The creature screeched. Suddenly one of the segments raised its pincers in the Gems' direction.

"RUN!" yelled Garnet, as the tail swung her towards the far wall. 

The pincers fired. Pearl leaped. Amethyst rolled. Four of Rose's minions jumped in front of their mistress.

Garnet flinched. There had been five pincers.

Pearl screamed. "Amethyst!"

"I got her!" The whip coiled around Rose's still-smoking gem, and flicked back to Amethyst.

Garnet gnashed her teeth. Sweat dripped from her brow as she fought to push the power back out of her gems. _Slow_. She could hear Rose now.

With a pop, her gauntlets released. Pearl leaped up to catch her; they jumped again to avoid a segment crashing on their heads.

"I'm fine," said Garnet to Pearl's worried look. "Stand back."

They proceeded to pummel the monster into dust. And its mate in the other chamber. And their tower of grubs. Then they'd sunk the sanctuary into the depths of the ocean.

Days later, Garnet was still sitting on the floor of their bubble room. It was cramped, but warm. In front of her was Rose's gem, the only one in the room not trapped in a bubble.

Pearl looked in on her often, despite having given her the warp whistle on the first day back. The last time she'd stood before the Rose Quartz gem, shifting her feet, her fingers playing some tune on an invisible flute. "Do you think she'll come back?"

"Mm," said Garnet.

"I mean... do you think she'll want to?"

Garnet just looked at Pearl. With a sigh, Pearl dipped down to kiss Garnet's cheek. "Come out some time so we can check your gems. Preferably with Rose."

The chamber darkened again. Pearl was gone.

Garnet must have rested her eyes for a spell, because she sensed a gathering light nearby. She opened her eyes to find Rose, whole again, bending over her hands. "I'm sorry," Rose was saying. "Garnet, I'm so, so sorry."

She felt rather than saw the splash of healing tears landing into her cupped palms. "It was our fault. We should have done a better job."

"But you were the one captured!" Rose clutched Garnet's hands. "I was the one who was supposed to lay cover."

Garnet felt unfathomably weary. "Come on, Rose. The others are waiting for us." She got up. "If you're wondering, the Manaclaws are floating over there."

"I'll see to them later," said Rose in a small voice.

Garnet did not believe in a world where Rose Quartz could be in any way small. However, the bubble room was at the center of a maze-like cave complex, one security measure being that there was no place to walk shoulder-to-shoulder. Garnet climbed and jumped and swam until finally she tumbled out of the last tube into the cozy anteroom. She caught Rose as she came through. 

"What is it, Garnet? Are your gems feeling all right?"

"What's been bothering you?" Garnet shook her head. "It's not just the gem monsters, or the sanctuaries."

"What about the part where I can't save any of them." Rose glanced aside, her brows drawn.

"You always say that we're going to figure it out. That we'll find another way. And we are." Garnet stopped. Every word seemed to weigh on Rose. 

Rose spent a great many minutes breathing. Respiration was not necessary, Garnet thought. Breathing was. "...Garnet, the truth is I just want to go _home_. I might want it even more than Pearl does. I want to walk the celestial fields again. I want to be there when the stars are seeded. I miss the song of the flowers, and every time humans stumble on that thin metaphor I want to shake them until they somehow grasp what it truly _means_."

"Their minds would explode if they ever heard that song," said Garnet.

"Yes." Rose sighed. Her hair began to grow around her, curling tendrils gently wrapping around Garnet's ankles. "I've reached the limit of my powers, Garnet. You've felt it."

"I have."

"Thanks for not telling the others."

"No problem." Garnet reached over and ruffled Rose's hair. Small abrasions appeared on her unprotected fingertips.

Rose covered her eyes. Tears leaked through her fingers. Garnet kept her hand in place. "I don't have enough tears for all the suffering in this world. I can't rebuild everything that needs it."

"You don't have to."

Rose looked up at Garnet. Her eyes glowed bright. "We have to destroy the Gem structures that endanger Earth. We won't win without Earth."

Garnet's lips parted.

"You won't win with me on the team," said Rose.

"No—"

"I'm useless to us, Garnet." The tendrils began to harden into vines. Garnet had to squirm out of their grasp. Rose's outline began to glow as well. "We have to—"

"Rose, stop," said Garnet. She manifested her gauntlets.

" _We have to grow._ "

Pearl and Amethyst burst in. "What is going on!" cried Pearl. A second later, the billowing vines burst into leaf and they all were thrown against the wall.

The other two drew their weapons, but Garnet instantly knew that Rose wasn't attacking them— she was trying to get away. The vines nearly pushed them through the wall as they filled the room. "Don't cut any of them!" Garnet yelled.

"She's right! The sap will dissolve any weapon!" The spikes were shredding Pearl's garments. "Amethyst, don't get your whip tangled up!"

"This is really freeaaaky!" Amethyst shouted.

Then Rose burst through the outer door. In moments, the vines were writhing their way out, leaving the remaining Gems in the rubble. They could hear Rose's giant footsteps in the distance.

Garnet found her bearings, leaning on the wall. "Amethyst!" She tossed the warp whistle to her. "Can you take on Rose by yourself?"

"I'm on it!" In one bound, Amethyst was off.

"Make sure she doesn't hurt anyone!" Garnet called after her. "Yourselves included!"

Horrified and dazed, Pearl made her way to Garnet. "Shouldn't we help Amethyst?"

"We should," said Garnet. She glanced at Pearl. "But I think Rose got me."

Pearl uttered a phrase she had either picked up from Amethyst or a sailor. "Let me see it." The wound was a ragged gash along her hip towards the side of her thigh. Pearl called upon her gem powers, searching for any internal damage. "It's not so bad, all things considered. No poison. Not that it's Rose's style." 

"Feel weak," admitted Garnet.

"You should be able to sit down." She swept her hand and a low rock slid over for a seat. "There." Pearl's probing light swept over Garnet, who turned her palms over to show her gems. Then Pearl sat back, looking quizzical. "Nothing's wrong that a dip in Rose's fountain wouldn't fix. Maybe you're in shock."

Garnet squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head. "Maybe I am. Huh. Rose was always the one who believed. In us. In this planet. I never thought I would hear doubt in her voice." In her song.

"What caused this? Is Rose...?" Pearl covered her mouth.

"I think her gem's fine," Garnet assured her. "Rose isn't. She said something about... not being able to help the team."

"Oh dear." Pearl summoned some bandages, and started to wrap Garnet's wound. "I was afraid it was like that. She's been working non-stop. There has to be something we can do to give Rose a chance to rest. At the very least." 

Garnet thumped her head on the wall. "I'm out of ideas."

"You've had a long week." Pearl sat beside Garnet and took her hand. The way she was folded, she should have been all knees and elbows, yet there was always a grace in the way she held herself. "Maybe we've got the wrong end of this. The main objective is to chase those abominations out of the hiding among the humans. Amethyst does a fine enough job flushing them out, but the chase is diverting our resources."

"Stem the tide, and we can give Rose a chance to breathe."

"Give us all a chance! We all need a break," said Pearl. Absently she called up a new, pristine outfit. "If we could only finish that detector! We might even be able to connect it to a warp pad, and corral them into a battleground of our choosing." Pearl was squeezing Garnet's hand hard, so taken she was by the vision. 

"What _is_ the hold-up?"

"We did too good a job. The prototype can't tell the difference between physical constructs and humans."

Garnet rolled her thumb across the back of Pearl's hand, startling her. "It's too bad it's not scanning for us. I certainly know how to pick you out."

"That's it." Pearl blinked. A smile stretched her lips. "Garnet! We could use ourselves as the baseline. We've been trying to pick them out of a mass of humans and human objects, when we could just sort it into them and us. Oh, why didn't I think of that earlier." Then her shoulders sank. "Naturally, well, we would have to translate our gems' unique signature into something the detector can digest."

A draft wafted through the opening Rose had made. Garnet tugged on Pearl. "Seal up the door. Keep talking."

"Of course. Wouldn't want more monsters barging in," Pearl spun in place and got to her feet. She raised her fingertips to her gem; chunks of rubble began to rise and line up like animated masonry. "Even though the creatures aren't producing stable constructs, they're still _making_ them in the same way."

"The song."

"Yes, exactly! The trouble with using our own gems is that we are inherently sophisticated. Any input trying to mimic us would... it would be a clone. Our gems would erupt, and er, you know the rest. So!" Pearl whirled on her toes. "Perhaps we can differentiate with the singing, not the song."

"How?"

"I... don't know. But that does seem to be what we have in common with these wild gems." Pearl snapped her finger, and the wall moved into place. "In that split-second between higher energy and this reality, every gem has to break into song. Nothing happens without a voice."

"Rose taught us that," said Garnet quietly. "How long has it been? We should go after Amethyst."

Pearl said firmly, " _After_ a stop at the fountain. If Amethyst needed us right now, she'd have used the whistle. Besides, Rose tends to run down quickly after a display like that." Pearl offered a hand to Garnet, and easily hoisted her up. "I feel awful that we didn't do enough to protect her."

Garnet turned her head. "Rose doesn't need our protection. She's a Gem warrior, like you. Like me. She's strong."

Softly Pearl said, "I hope Rose remembers that."

*

Rose left an obvious track: a swathe cut through mature forest already bursting with saplings and stalks. The track narrowed, with a few worrying whip-burns, and then plunged into the sea. Garnet surfed along on some driftwood while Pearl balanced the surface tension to track the currents on foot. 

They ended up back along the coast. There Rose and Amethyst found them, and what was even more shocking was instead of a blubbering mess, they were met by two jubilant grins.

"Garnet! Pearl! Are you all right?" Rose waded into the surf, her arms outstretched. "Did I hurt you? Let me see you." She got to Pearl first, lifting her off her feet. Garnet intervened, and got a hug too. She cupped Rose's cheek, raising her face to take a look at her. Her skin was warm and vibrant under her gem. "Garnet," Rose said. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Would you forgive me?"

"What for?"

"You guys will never be-lieve what we found!" Amethyst yelled. She cartwheeled into the water, and started splashing at Pearl.

Pearl gaped. "Never mind us, what about you? Did you have that herb I told you not to touch?"

"Nah, we're cool, I mean, this seaweed tried to eat me for a minute but Rose got me out." Amethyst hopped and pointed at Garnet and Pearl. "Guess!"

Rose laughed. "It's not what we found. It's a where."

"Aw, I wanted 'em to guess."

Taking their hands, Rose towed Garnet and Pearl to shore. "It's surrounded on three sides by water. The ocean currents are cold and healthy. With a wide horizon where all the stars can shine down. Humans were here but they've moved on — it's deserted. And the rocks are perfect—"

Amethyst high-jumped onto Rose's head. "For a gem shrine. Gem shrine, baybeee!"

"Perhaps it was all for the best. If I hadn't run off, we never would have found this spot." 

Pearl looked at Garnet. The beach was barely a strand. There was no natural breakwater to speak of. If there was to be a harbor in the future, the bay would have to be dredged.

"No, not there," Rose said. She turned Garnet to the promontory jutting into the sky. "Here."

"It could use a lighthouse," Pearl said.

"Put your hands on the cliff, Garnet," Rose said coaxingly. "It's good, dense rock. I bet there's already a core of crystals growing inside."

Garnet felt the rocks. 

Pearl said, "We have been delaying it for quite a while. Consolidating our personal sanctuaries into one place would save us some energy. Maybe just enough to save... one, maybe two structures?"

Rose was watching Garnet say nothing. "If nothing else, the bubbled gems need to stay closer to us. We're always leaving them behind. It's a tempting target."

Pearl cast her gaze to the sky. It was indeed wide. "I think it's a marvelous idea. There's more than enough space for all of us. And some people's junk collections—"

"Wuhatever, blue-socks."

"—there's just one little tiny detail, Rose." Pearl opened her hands apologetically.

"How are we going to build it," said Garnet.

Rose rocked on her feet. "How do you all feel about encrustment?"

Pearl winced. "We don't exactly have geologic hours to spare. It's complicated enough building a giant temple for four Gems..."

"I've run some tests since I built my garden," said Rose. "The first trial took decades. This would take a few months. Maybe less because of the salty air."

"It is slightly ionized," said Pearl thoughtfully.

Rose clasped her hands. "It would take a little longer to partition the interior and set it up. But that can be done as we go."

Garnet took in three sets of hopeful gazes.

"We could be roomies," Amethyst said, eyeslids fluttering.

"It's long overdue," added Pearl.

Garnet knocked on the cliff wall. " _If_. You get the detector done."

Rose jumped up, her curls bouncing. Pearl grinned. Amethyst did a flip, and sprawled on the sand. And stared up, and up.

"Hang on," said Amethyst. "We gotta hold still inside that cliff? I dunno if I can make it. That's a whole freaking cliff on top of me...!"

"We'd be fused, of course," said Pearl sensibly. Then her eyes widened. She turned to look at Rose. "We would need to be in our greatest fusion form to carve out this enormous cliff." 

Rose nodded. "That's correct."

Garnet raised a hand. "Fusing is for urgent situations only."

"This _is_ urgent."

Looking into Rose's eyes, Garnet found none of the hysterical despair of earlier. Only calm. Only Rose. Garnet schooled her tone. "If you feel you're up to it, Rose."

 _There._ The petals could go on and on, but underneath there were the thorns. "The team needs this to happen. We need a home."

Amethyst rolled around in the sand. "When was the last time we even pulled this off? A million years? A bajillion years?"

"Bajillion is not a real number, and Amethyst brings up a good point," said Pearl. "We don't even know what that fusion is going to look like. We didn't have these physical constructs before."

"Well then," said Garnet, "It looks like we're about to find out."

*

Pearl cashed in some Dutch holdings and Rose massaged her government connections to lay official claim to the land. (Official to the country, at least; if political fortunes changed, they would simply do it again.) Nothing would grow there, and the surveys had marked it as uninhabitable. It was, Garnet thought, exactly the sort of place Rose liked.

Pearl worked feverishly to finish the detector, and Rose helped plan the final design. Amethyst had quite a scuffle with Garnet one day; it turned out she was really measuring Garnet's face and not trying to play peek-a-boo. At last they presented the finished version to Garnet.

Garnet had to admit the shades were pretty cool. 

"It slopes over here so you can attach a small veil-generator," said Pearl, pointing with an archivist's wand. "Since it is rather futuristic."

"Too cool for school," cooed Amethyst.

"What does that even mean? Anyway, it doesn't work yet, because we need to zero it to our baseline." Pearl continued to point, this time at a technical sheet.

Rose said, "We got over the cloning problem by turning the sensitivity way down. So it will register impressions of our song, not the whole piece."

"If that's so, how effective will this be?"

"It's best with a chorus," said Pearl.

"A really BIG chorus," said Amethyst.

Rose tapped her bottom lip. "We do have to practice fusing before we're inside the cliff."

As Garnet smirked at Rose, Pearl went on, "Our individual signatures will show up with only the most prominent waveforms. There is margin for error, of course, but your sight should compensate for it."

Garnet stepped toward Rose. Her shades glinted in the sun. "Do you hear the music, Rose?"

"Even in my dreams," she said.

"Do you feel it?" Garnet looked around.

"When I walk the walk!" Amethyst twisted her hips.

"When I," said Pearl, "When I reach for the moonlight."

"Whenever I'm with you," said Rose.

"Then let's do this, Crystal Gems."

*

On a lonely beach, by the firelight, they were four beings of extraordinary power. They harnessed the rays of the cosmos, they bumped hips with the tides, they sang for the stars.

They were friends.

One Gem Is One. 

All Gems Together. 

Their faces looked up and their faces looked forward. Their limbs reached to all directions. Their hearts aligned in a single chorus.

_what are you doing_

_i wanna see our reflection_

_stand up against the cliff_

_turn around back to the wall_

_too tall oops_

_sit down_

_the sand's still warm_

_just right_

—with a pop and several flashes of light, they fell back on the sand.

Garnet started to laugh.

"Woooooo!" "Did you get the reading? Did it work?"

"I got it," Garnet said. "I see all four of us." She turned to Rose.

"So that's what I was missing," said Rose. And her laugh was so sweet they could forget how the stars were shining.

*

They cleared some of the wild gems from the continent, then packed up as much as they could carry from their main caches. Amethyst tried to bring a caravan's worth of stuff. Much of that was strewn all over the beach above the high tide line.

Garnet punched a hole from the inland side into the heart of the rock. Amethyst and Pearl plugged up the brackish water spurting from every fissure; Rose called on her minions to dam the flow. They were sealed in.

Amethyst stuck close to Pearl's gem-light. "Oh man this is creeptastic."

There was the steady boom of Garnet's gauntlets. 

Pearl cupped her lips. "Stop after the next one!"

"I know," said Garnet, shaking rubble from her shoulders. "Look."

"I had a feeling," said Rose happily. She bent down and her gem illuminated a small nest of crystals. 

Garnet banished her gauntlets. "There won't be much room to dance."

"Yeah, how are we swinging that?" said Amethyst.

Rose placed her hand on Amethyst's shoulder. With her other hand she touched Pearl, and Garnet put her hand on top of theirs. There was the faint drip, drip of water but it seemed very far away.

Whispered Rose, echoed Rose, "You can free yourself in the dark. Don't think of where you are, here. Think of where you are in the cosmos."

"Feel where you are." Garnet.

"The song arises from the dance, don't forget." Pearl.

"Song's our bones." Amethyst.

"Great trees take root in the dark." Rose. "In the dark, you were there to guide me."

In the heart of the rock, there was a light.

*

They were significantly smellier than after the first fusion. Pearl was half-panicked trying to get slimy water out of her ears. Rose was trying to stop Amethyst from jamming a twig into her navel to get at some grime. Rose herself looked like her whole head was a solid clod of dirt. Underneath all that, she was smiling.

Garnet didn't have time for that. She sealed up the pilot tunnel and let it flood. A small pond formed at the inland base of the cliff. Rose would probably populate it with cute little biting things to keep trespassers out.

She emerged into the welcoming sun and rolled in the rising surf to get the crusty bits off. 

Someone was calling her name. ...they all were.

"Look!" cried Rose.

"We never got a chance to see ourselves the first time," said Pearl. "That's really quite lovely."

Amethyst elbowed Garnet. They grinned at each other. 

"Yeah," said Garnet. " _That_ is awesome."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Likely Belvedere Palace in Vienna; (After Waterloo - Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819, Frye WE), arabesque, Dutch banking, ref. bluestockings   
>  ETA: Should you be new to the _Steven Universe_ er, universe: [JPG](http://stevencrewniverse.tumblr.com/post/98824338132/a-selection-of-backgrounds-from-the-steven) backgrounds. (Join us!)    
>    
>  _(What follows is the approach to canon. A good place to take a breath.)_


	7. Chapter 7

 

The humans began to stride in larger scales. The Gems began to operate in smaller ones. With a stable home base, they quickly reached an equilibrium with the rogue gems. There would be sporadic attacks, then they'd survey the aftermath and deactivate or destroy useless sanctuaries. The rest was a consolidation of power in their own Gem shrine. Garnet took the lead in temple building. Some parts of the inner sanctum were too hot for any of the others. Pearl oversaw the crystal growth, though she didn't have much to do. The interior still hummed with their energy signature. The crystals followed the paths, practically growing themselves. As for Rose, she planted some sentries on the first day, then left the others to it. Garnet took it as her expert opinion on the build, and forged on.

Garnet could not put the walls up fast enough. Pearl and Amethyst were constantly changing plans for each other's spaces. Amethyst wanted the ground but she didn't want to be downstream of Pearl's waterfalls. Pearl insisted on a high ceiling but did not want to be any closer to Amethyst's level. Then Garnet would be working on Amethyst's space and come across an item, perhaps hard and cylindrical with leather straps, only to have Amethyst kick her out. "It was from Pearl, okaygoaway now!" Not long after, she might find them on the temple's high seaward palm practicing the balance of each other, Amethyst one-handed launching Pearl to tumble elegantly in the wind — later still Pearl doing splits with Amethyst tucked against her chest. No one said a word.

Prospectors wandered in looking for gold; Rose persuaded them to stay and fish the bay if they built a lighthouse on their land. And if they said nothing about how the foundations had been dug, plumbed, and poured in one night. That project occupied Pearl for a year — Rose was especially pleased that she let the humans take the lead in construction. There would not be telegraph lines for some time, but Pearl slyly installed a phonograph in the saloon. This allowed them to survey more music without ever leaving the temple grounds. The town fathers soon spread the superstition that it was ill luck to disturb the cliff overlooking their settlement. Over the years Rose prevailed in relaxing the veil, until a generation came up which had never known anything but their shrine upon the rocks.

They couldn't interfere with the town, but with even Amethyst's "junk" considered valuable antiquities, they could support some endeavors financially. Not all went according to plan. Pearl's pet project of a grand theater began booking vaudeville acts. Garnet found it hilarious, though perhaps not for the same reasons as the rest of the audience. To console Pearl, Rose sold off some of her prized non-lethal specimens and bought her an automobile. Pearl took it apart and put it back together so it would run on pure water, with a little help from some of Rose's fungi to make it smell authentic. Any differences between Pearl and Amethyst regarding the shrine's architecture were subsequently resolved in the back seat.

They figured out how to salvage a warp pad. Their travels became more regular. Rose accompanied Pearl to the opera and theater. Sometimes Garnet would take over for more action-packed performances, and kiss Pearl under lamp or lantern-light while she was still burbling with enthusiasm. For the partner dances, Garnet was always in high demand. Pearl put Rose through drills for a couple of years until she was able to step out with Garnet on the ballroom floor. ("The visual effect is better. Symmetry and balance are very important!") Afterwards Rose would more than likely step out. And Garnet would figure out how to put Pearl through some private drills of her own.

One night she and Pearl sweated through a bolero into the small hours of the night. As the sun rose, Garnet dipped her amidst the meadow grasses and Pearl let Garnet's gem brush against her hidden places. Garnet cupped her palm like she was drawing water — the slight tidal push rippled through Pearl to where she had captured Garnet's other gem. With every stroke Pearl's airborne legs bent back as though swept by ocean waves. And then both her hands grasped Garnet's gem; with a brush of a kiss, a luminous fog emerged from her own gem, spiraling around Garnet's forearm and _this_ time it felt like the wave through Pearl's body came all the way around to world to pummel every drop of liquid in Garnet's body. Garnet staggered. Pearl bruised her own lip blue. Only the fog kept them from setting the grasses on fire.

They never danced the bolero again — Amethyst was more adept at it anyway — but Garnet was okay with that.

Garnet and Amethyst began to specialize in the underground forms, where cultures clashed, where the young slipped away from their elders, where beauty flourished in spite of bondage. They raced through alleys from one capoeira master to another; leaped bonfires with soldiers and villagers alike; handled snakes and sticks and thwacking poles. There were festival songs of spring and summer; there were just as many songs of nostalgia and loss and home. They hauled water and rations wherever they went, and were generally granted a room or corner where Garnet could handle the frustration out of Amethyst.

Then the humans began to _improvise_. Amethyst was thrilled. She dragged whomever she could to every juke joint and dance hall and speakeasy she could find. She wandered seaport towns with a flower in her hair and an eye for trouble. They tried to reel her in, but Pearl couldn't grasp the nuances and Garnet didn't have words to describe it. To keep up with the steps, Pearl set up a bank of radios in the former stables, but it was no use. Amethyst was the authority and she didn't let them forget it.

As much as the new forms delighted Rose like any other living thing, the emotions tended to grab too strong a hold on her. Someone would sing of a long-ago tragedy and Rose would be moved to fix it. She traveled for the people, in fallow times and fruitful, undaunted in peace and in war. In combat zones she'd dress as a medic and wear a particularly ferocious bloom on her lapel, which spit hard seeds at bullets. Garnet even saw her withstand machine-gun fire for a long two seconds, her supplies untouched. It was too bad her little minion only reacted to metal, and only for Rose. All for the chance to sit in some foxhole and sing a melody of home. Garnet usually waited till the last moment to punch a hole in the ground and burrow out.

All four of them congregated for the older dances. Some had evolved into surprising new forms, and some were just as surprisingly unchanged. Pearl lamented all the songs which had been lost to humanity, and there were many. They had never counted the clusters of human beings before, but now there were nagging memories of a several times removed great-grandparent whose clan might or might not still live in the area. Slowly, and then quicker and quicker, humans replaced what was deemed obsolete. Pearl and Rose would prepare for a sword dance only to be handed an antique which no local knew how to forge. Rose had to calm down Pearl the first time it was a wooden knock-off.

"I suppose it's to be expected," sighed Pearl, spinning a sword on her finger. "Agriculture and disease: those are the key markers. Then..."

Amethyst leaned on Rose, and Rose leaned back. They would have all the power they needed. But there would be no tending humanity, no stopping that circular dance.

*

Sometimes there was nothing for Garnet to do but wait for an attack.

She watched Amethyst walk up to the shrine entrance, read some of the requests — they tried to discourage cults but the sailors had their lore — and grab some of the food offerings, otherwise known as those tacos she liked.

Garnet waited.

There was a thump. "Garnet!" Amethyst was on top of her head.

"Mm."

"Garnnneeettt."

"Mm."

"Gar _net_."

"What."

"Let's shake the shack."

"I don't think she's going anywhere." From this angle, their likeness was looking down on them, actually.

"Garnet!" Amethyst coiled her arms around, two times. "I know you haven't been rolling Pearl lately, so you're free now, right?"

Garnet tilted her head.

"Please—"

"Fine."

They crossed the wide vestibule towards the inner door. There Rose was singing to her terraced garden; she looked up and winked at Amethyst, who gave her a thumbs-up.

Garnet rolled her eyes.

No sooner had the light activated for Amethyst's room than Rose spoke up. "Don't let guests sit on the _floor_ , Amethyst."

The door slid closed behind them.

Amethyst swore. She whirled around, patting Garnet's knees. "Stay here! Okay. I'll be right back. Don't..." She hurdled over a wall of sewing machines. "Don't go anywhere!"

Garnet looked up. The junk piles towered over her. There was a slight sway to them.

After some crashes and clatters, Amethyst burst out of a side-pile. "Follow me," she said with a grin. She took Garnet's hand.

Together they traveled a circuitous route through Amethyst's ... jungle. It did seem to have undergrowth, a middle story, and a canopy.

And in a conspicuous clearing surrounded by glimmering pools, there was a canopy bed.

"I had to change the mattress," Amethyst lied, kicking some detritus out of the way. She looked at Garnet hopefully.

Garnet realized she should say something. "Nice."

"Yeah, isn't it!" Amethyst laughed.

Garnet ducked in. Too late she remembered she should dismiss her footwear, but Amethyst didn't seem to mind. Amethyst was crawling around a spot on the bed like a nervous puppy.

Garnet placed her hands on her knees. Above her were layers and layers of accumulated things... but they were also remnants of ages past. _Mementos_ , Rose had explained. Garnet hadn't understood at the time. Now she thought that maybe it had been a long time since she and Amethyst had done something uncomplicated.

 _Oh._ This was unexpected. This was Amethyst, though.

"Uh, do you wanna strip or—?"

"Don't take your clothes off yet," said Garnet, and with one finger lifted the curtain of Amethyst's hair.

Amethyst was muttering something like _omigosh omigosh_. With a rustle she shimmied closer. Garnet held her face, watching her eyelids sink almost sleepily over a look of infatuation. She brought their lips together.

They didn't come up for air for a while because they didn't need to. Garnet leaned back a little; Amethyst took all the territory she could get her hands on. Her knee was trying to hook on top of Garnet's breast, though she'd softened her bones for the occasion.

They broke the kiss.

"Tacos," said Garnet.

Amethyst hit her own forehead. "Ugh dood." She drew her whip — which gave Garnet all sorts of ideas — and retrieved a bottle of moonshine from the mound of bottles. "Just a second." With her legs still wrapped around Garnet she threw herself back and gargled the liquor. Her cheeks ballooned, then her jaw set and her nostrils flared. A small flame poofed out of her nose. Garnet bit her lip as Amethyst volcanoed the rest of the fireball from her mouth. She tossed the bottle. Her arms flew up. "Ready!"

With a laugh, Garnet gave her a healthy slap on the ass. A wisp of smoke escaped. Garnet pulled her close, and blew on Amethyst's tongue when she presented it. A bit caramelized but otherwise... Amethyst. Out of curiosity she tasted her for a while, mindful of her slow purrs every time Garnet drew fingers through her hair.

Garnet paused to take off her shades.

"Yeah baby," said Amethyst. She bounced against Garnet.

Leaning forward, Garnet tried to deposit Amethyst closer to the headboard. Amethyst's eyes got big. Before she could start whimpering, Garnet touched her lips. "Let's try something different."

"Whuth?" Amethyst said around sucking Garnet's finger.

Garnet regarded her. She drew a circle around the perimeter of Amethyst's gem. "Think you can do a custom fit?" She reached lower.

It took a minute for Amethyst to understand, though Garnet's fingers were likely a factor. "Whoa whoa whoa, you're always the one who...!"

Garnet searched for appropriate words. 'Whatever you want' was not a wise idea with Amethyst. "If you'd like."

Amethyst threw herself back and kicked the air. "Eeeeeee! Me likey!" Starry-eyed, she kicked herself back upright. "Okay, okay, okay, gimme a minute. You really mean it, Garnet?"

"Mmhm."

"Good, 'cause I can handle whatever you've got," Amethyst grinned. Frantically she patted Garnet's thighs till she shed her garments. "Hang on." Amethyst slung an arm around Garnet's neck and kissed her thoroughly. "Don't pop it out... by yourself... mm, you'll get looks but no moves."

"Got it." They devoured each other, bobbing and swaying to a similar beat, Amethyst's excitement spilling over in waves, her hair dusting Garnet's cheek, her fingernails ticking into claws and back again.

Garnet's hands traveled her curves, tracing the dangerously flexible terrain that seemed to throb with every breath. She arrived at that particular region of her ass that was both hard and sensitively soft, and the raw heat between her thighs was shocking. Amethyst really was ready — between them her gem spilled wine-colored light across their flesh, and every part of her was stiff and twitching.

Amethyst groped Garnet's breasts, parting them so she could peer down. "Yeah, baby. That's it," she said encouragingly, nuzzling Garnet's neck. "Save the _bu-bu-ba-bom_ for later. Ease into the _wu woa woh_ oh! That's a good one. Wait, don't look at it yet! Lookit me."

Garnet obliged. "You're pretty," she said.

"Dawww, Garne-e-e-eet!" Amethyst clapped her cheeks, batting her lashes outrageously.

Garnet nearly laughed. The weight between her legs felt a little more right, now. If she'd just shaken one out the way Amethyst usually did, it would've been more rock than flesh. "You don't care how big?"

"Believe me, I can _take_ it." Suddenly Amethyst grabbed her shoulders and stared deep into her eyes. "Hey. Before you open up my hot package, go easy on the nerve bundles, okay? It can start pumping if you look at a tree stump wrong, and if you're inside—"

"I'll be gentle," said Garnet. _Gentle, not slow._ She combed through Amethyst's hair, her fingers coming away with fine silver, and felt the last bits take shape with one final _bu-bom_.

Amethyst got wobbly-eyed. She stared, clutching Garnet like she always did. She glanced down. Flicked her eyes up again. And her swollen lips parted into a wide, wide smile.

"Eh heh heh he...!"

Garnet kneaded her ass with intent now, feeling herself straining towards Amethyst's greedy heat. Amethyst nestled over, her gem burning between them, her body guiding Garnet inside. Gnashing her teeth, Garnet pushed deeper into Amethyst's hot clasp. Somewhere she heard Amethyst murmur, "You're, like, _Garnet_ ," and then they were _together_. It was amazing that they were separate, and yet she could feel herself inside Amethyst, making Amethyst feel too.

Then Amethyst coiled her muscles and popped her hips— Garnet couldn't hold back any longer. She swayed forward, barely catching the headboard, and nearly cratered the mattress. Amethyst huffed; before Garnet could pull back, she grabbed her under the armpits and gave her a shake. The jolt knocked Garnet back into the groove. She leaned in, her hands dipped in a pool of Amethyst's hair, (pleasantly) smothering her with her breasts. They shook and grappled and with every cry the walls of the temple gave an answering rumble. Amethyst was _hot_. Even the way Amethyst's body sprang back against Garnet's seemed to jar her skull with pleasure. She was telling progressively dirtier things to Garnet's breasts, and Garnet couldn't even laugh because every gravelly word made her shiver.

Then somehow Amethyst sat them up. With a growl she began to stretch into the form she was feeling. Garnet knew this phrase or something like it— but in these bodies there'd been nothing like this. Amethyst's bones stretched and curved and snapped back with every pulse; her skin was soft one way and sharp the other; delicious hips wrung out sensations so keen that Garnet couldn't keep up with the changing beat. Reflexively she threw her arms around Amethyst's burgeoning shoulders.

With a feral laugh, Amethyst took her all the way _down_.

Garnet's eyes might have rolled back. Maybe.

There was a hazy pink coating on the world.

"—I think I broke Garnet!"

The canopy bed didn't seem to be there anymore. But no smoke; no problem.

"Oh dear. Pearl really is the best at this, but I'll give a try. Garnet? Garnet?"

Garnet registered Amethyst's worried voice, the first discordance. "Are y-you okay?"

It was hard to reach. Easier to roll. Garnet flung out and got a handful of Amethyst. 

"I think she's fine."

Fuck, that was Rose. Garnet struggled to blink, reaching for sheets that weren't there. Something cracked, and toppled, and there was a brief puff of debris.

"Hold still, dear," said Rose's voice, and a layer of cotton enveloped her up to her chin. "Amethyst, be a love and stabilize that before it falls on us? Don't worry, I don't think she's broken."

Garnet shook her head. There was still a faint pulsing around her. The warm mountain that was Rose perched beside her. "Sorry. I was working on my construct."

"Among other things." Rose checked her and her gems, more amused than anything else. 

Garnet sat up to peek at Amethyst, who was rearranging some deck chairs. To Rose she mumbled, "Is this how it always is for you? When you sneak off—"

Rose laughed. "I don't do that nearly as much as you all imagine I do."

Garnet could still feel the aftershocks. "If that's how it is, it'll be another thousand years before I try that again."

"Amethyst and Pearl would be so disappointed."

"Sorry, Rose. For imposing."

"Nonsense. One day you may have to clean up after one of my messy love affairs," Rose said with a wink. "I know you do your best to protect me, but you can't do it all the time. Not that I'm ungrateful. Just the opposite."

Amethyst gave the heap a finishing kick. They watched her turn around, and hesitate. Garnet hooked her fingers and gestured her over. She cut around the puddles, belly-flopping on the remains of the mattress, and crawling on Garnet's knees. "You're not pissed off, are you?"

Garnet bent her knees, raising her up. Amethyst reached down for balance, and Garnet caught her hands. "No," she said. Then she yanked her forward. With a squeal Amethyst twisted into a mid-air death roll, though she only succeeded in flipping Garnet on top of her back.

"Wuuuaaaaaa!" Amethyst tried to lift Garnet. Garnet tried to get a hold on her waist. 

"I'll leave you to it, then," said Rose from afar.

As the door slid shut, Garnet looked down at Amethyst in her headlock. "How was it?"

"Blew mah mind to bits," Amethyst said with a gigantic toothy grin. "You?"

Garnet pressed a kiss into her hair."Earthquakes."

With a triumphant roar, Amethyst got an arm free and went for Garnet's knee.

A minute later, Garnet was blocking Amethyst's rapid punches when she caught her wrists. "Next time, let's be ourselves."

Amethyst just laughed. She popped her hips one way, and then another, and lunged for Garnet's midsection. Garnet (temporarily) went down.

"Grarrgh! Why aren't you ticklish yet!?"

*

Garnet looked for Rose to see if she was all right, and found her in the bubble vault. Her satiation began to fade, replaced by a different ache.

"Rose," said Garnet. She wasn't sure how to say these things. She landed on: "How are you?"

Rose could always pick it out. "I'm more settled about the problem. But the problem isn't settled." She opened her hands; a score of her bubbles rushed to float between her palms. 

"They're not healing." Every gem was an enemy. A battle.

"We need to grow. Pearl said something about diminishing returns. Eventually we'll dismantle all the other shrines. Eventually the fractured gems will corner us here in our home. Then what? Do we run again? And to where? What about all the humans we leave behind?"

The bubbles reflected on Garnet's shades. "Grow... how? The singing? The song?"

Rose's lips turned down thoughtfully. "Yes. Grow the song."

"How would you do that without fracturing?" Garnet tried to keep the edge from her voice.

Rose dropped her hands and let the bubbles float to their respective corners. "I won't try anything without asking. I learned my lesson. I'd suggest a fusion, but we can't reduce our numbers even further."

"It can't be me. Expansion would be dangerous for the whole planet."

"Pearl can't alter her core without losing cohesiveness," Rose continued. "Amethyst's the opposite. That state of constant motion isn't cohesive to begin with. It might be possible, but she might lose too much energy between stable states. Or like an orbital cloud: change into something not-Amethyst."

Garnet folded her arms. They could run the strategy through Pearl's computer for centuries and still get the same result. "Can't risk that. So I guess it really is you." She looked up to where the heart of their shrine thrummed with what should have been comforting regularity. "I don't want to tell you to look into this."

"I already am."

"Of course you are." She walked to the edge of the furnace. Rose came to stand beside her. The updraft lifted the ends of her curls.

In the old days, Garnet would have disappeared into a wasteland and kicked a fault into the planet's surface. In the days older than that, she would have ridden energy waves into an asteroid field and demolished comets. Now she could only stand here beside her friend.

Garnet pulled Rose close. She could feel this in her ribs, but this time she couldn't let it stick there. "I always look forward to the next century with you." 

Rose seemed amused by this one, too. "You wouldn't lose me. One Gem Is One."

Then she gathered Garnet in her arms, her breaths perfumed with soft blooms and the unyielding strength of sunlight. It was — as with most things Rose — a comfort.

* * *

With a new shrine came the siege. They now had fewer assets to protect, and thus fewer to attack. The masses of monstrous gem creatures had figured that out. Though every now and then Rose or sometimes Pearl would be able to sit by the radio, dewy-eyed, they had to leave humanity to its devices — the war had come to them.

It was as Rose feared: she was an enemy target and their greatest liability. This detail was immaterial to them. They fought on because they had to. Because they were Crystal Gems. But the ground they'd gained over thousands of years was beginning to crumble, bit by bit.

Garnet and Rose considered telling the other two about the possible contingency. It was a one-shot, though. And Rose had as much of a plan as when she started. It consisted of _we'll figure it out._ Though they knew where this was headed, it made no sense to damage morale over an idea that didn't even have a theory behind it.

Sometimes they'd sit between the fingers of their shrine and cast pebbles on the beach, talking through the possibilities. They'd been dwelling in their physical constructs for so long that the very thought of returning to the cosmic song sometimes seemed unreal. If that was even the answer— Garnet wasn't so sure.

"I am certain of one thing," Rose said, watching children play in the sand. "Earth holds the key. I could tend my gardens for an epoch and still not duplicate this astonishing variety. Besides, why else would the Gems before us have picked this planet?"

The children were knocking down sandcastles. "They can barely hang on to their collective knowledge," said Garnet dubiously.

"Maybe that's not it, then. Maybe it's something simpler."

They won more victories, albeit costly ones. Not just the sanctuaries and the various objects of power were in the line of fire. One of their number was regenerating nearly every battle. Even these brief inconveniences could exacerbate a situation, like monsters breaking out of their bubbles or Rose leaving carnivorous vines without instructions for their safe handling. 

At the same time, having bodies came with unexpected advantages. Instead of Pearl retreating to her simulations and holograms, she retreated to Amethyst and Garnet. While she still sat under the stars, watching the Earth spin the sky around, her song was stronger than ever. Of course this also gave her something new to fret over.

One summer evening, Pearl and Garnet took Amethyst's regenerating gem for a "walk" around the top of the cliff. The harbor had been dredged decades ago, but the small fishing boats had their own navigation systems and so the lighthouse had been dark for years. Balancing Amethyst's bubble, Pearl actually asked Garnet about an intimate matter.

"The two of you are always..." Pearl trailed off, her face burning.

Garnet just knew Amethyst was going to choose that moment to regain her body. "You don't have to push yourself if you don't want it."

"I want to be closer to you," said Pearl softly. She crossed her ankles. "You did invite me."

Garnet grinned, and stole a quick kiss. "It's fairly close to what we've been doing already."

"But—!"

Garnet raised a hand. "Pearl, you can't go too strongly against the nature of your gem."

Pearl started. "Do you mean it might be harmful?"

Since Pearl looked like she was reconsidering a few centuries' worth of bedroom activities, Garnet quickly said, "Rose has been keeping an eye on our power fluctuations. She says they're safe."

"She has?!" Oh. Garnet scratched her ear. It wasn't as though Rose had been eavesdropping; the temple's functions included being a giant resonating chamber for their energies. Not that this mattered to Pearl. "...I suppose she does have an interest in keeping track. She's always been the most consistent Gem of the four of us."

"Only precautionary," Garnet said. "We do bring our powers up to the brink of fusing, and then don't."

Pearl nearly dropped Amethyst's bubble. "So it _is_ dangerous?!"

"No more than anything else we do..." She touched Pearl's shoulder, trying to get the wheels to slow or stop turning. "Rose and I wouldn't allow anything that would endanger the team as a whole."

"Yes. Yes, of course."

"This isn't the team. This is," Garnet grabbed for the word. "Individually."

Pearl had that speculative look. "It... wouldn't hurt to try, would it?" She looked over at the city lights; Rose wouldn't be back for a while.

"If Amethyst comes back in the middle of it, that will be on you."

They perched Amethyst on her favorite chair (a loveseat) and settled on the couch to make out. Garnet always found Pearl so sweet to start with. She jumped at every noise, every finger drawn across her skin, and Garnet had to be careful not to come at her too quickly lest she freeze. But once those first moments had passed, Pearl was deft at out-maneuvering any advance. One had to start early and head her off.

"Do you... should I have my clothes off?" Pearl gasped as Garnet kissed that particular tendon on her neck.

"Keep it on. Just grant me access." Garnet smiled when Pearl covered her mouth as her knees were parted. She laid Pearl down on the cushions and propped one leg on the couch back. Oh, bendy Pearl: Garnet's favorite.

Then slowly Garnet began to kiss the inside of her thighs. Pearl stiffened with every touch. Garnet could sense the dilation of the fine blood vessels even before the flush on her skin. Hm. Telling her to relax hardly ever worked. "May I see it?" she asked.

Pearl tilted her hips, and below those little wavelets, the folds of warm flesh bloomed at the touch of Garnet's breath.

Garnet raised her brows. She looked up at Pearl, who was staring back from between her fingers. Experimentally Garnet blew on the outer folds. A second passed before those perfect petals so much as twitched. There was coming out of her shell but this was not what Garnet had in mind. Biting her lip, Garnet reached out for Pearl's equally symmetrical, equally lovely hands. "Be you," said Garnet. 

"I'm sorry, I—"

"You don't have to change for us. Here. Close your eyes, and hang on to me." _Be with me, Pearl. With us._ Pearl just stole a glance at the loveseat. In response Garnet tossed some cushions on top of Amethyst's bubble, so they were sure to burst out if Amethyst did coalesce. Still watching, Garnet slid down and found where Pearl really kept that bundle of nerves.

Pearl's breath snagged. 

"Close them," said Garnet, and started to suck a little harder. She traced the inner entrance, now beginning to swell and even throb a little, and flicked in and out until Pearl was close to yanking her arms off. At last Pearl closed her eyes. Her grip was like iron bands. 

Garnet worked on her for a while — stroking around the perimeter, tickling a spot of twitching muscle on her thigh — and slowly that pristine vision dissolved into Pearl's true form. Fortunately by this point Pearl was too far gone to try to look. Garnet kissed it with great reverence.

She didn't try to penetrate farther, however, only a few flickering forays. Those came up against a resistance which seemed physical but wasn't. Garnet guessed it was the gem — Pearl was always so close to the fore — and didn't cross the line. Play, tease, press ever so slightly: those she did in a meandering adagio. Simplicity and persistence always worked with Pearl. It was incredibly difficult.

And rewarding. At last Garnet brought her to the edge of collapse, the surface of her gem glowing with wavering halos and bursts of light. Pearl was singing a note under her breath, over and over, and Garnet wondered... was that a note of her song? Then Pearl flew into a higher register; her limbs went limp.

Garnet took the opportunity to take her in her arms, kissing her cool cheek. Her grip relaxed, her palm pressed over Garnet's gem. Garnet could take on a hundred mountains, and Pearl would still be more magnificent than that. Of course, quite like enabling Amethyst, it was better not to tell her. Garnet showed them, instead.

At that moment there was a quick step of feet running up the temple entrance. A potted plant in the corner dipped its stalk in that same direction. Garnet sighed and sat back. Pearl scrambled up, frantically smoothing her hair. She had just completed crossing her legs when Rose whirled in. 

Literally. Her hem swished across the floor, her face pinked with excitement — even her nose. She was holding some sort of tape. 

"Pearl, Garnet," Rose said. "Amethyst," she addressed the bubble. "I'm in love."

* * *

It was a sucker punch.

This was when Garnet learned how time could stop.

*

She recalled battles. Monumental world events. Cosmic turning points. There were those, as there had always been those. _Ya seen one, ya seen 'em all_ Amethyst might chortle. All those Garnet seemed to forget. Instead, in these latest crucial years, she recalled only the moments at the shrine, with her family. Even stranger was the way they were all jumbled up, as though she'd swept up the brightest shards into a heap at her feet. Garnet was used to non-linear, but this was like a theater act opening with spoilers.

She even checked her gems in case there was damage to them. Pearl assured her that it was normal. 

...for humans.

For instance: she remembered reaching to touch Steven's head, then pausing as Pearl's warning about soft baby craniums came back to her. On her knees, she followed Steven for the rest of the day, her hand hovering over his head, barely brushing his already thick curls. 

And she remembered when Steven realized it, and started playing the Crawling Umbrella Game with her.

Garnet was a being with near-infinite reach through space, time, and the universe.

It took some getting used to.

*

It didn't start with Greg Universe. At first glace all the Gems thought he was unremarkable. The sort of benign human Amethyst might accidentally sit on, one easy for Garnet to crush just by standing next to him. He was also the sort who didn't seem capable of even thinking of hurting Rose, and he made her laugh. This saved him from all those fates, and getting skewered by Pearl besides.

He actually dated Rose for quite a while. ("So she's on-call to save the world. Lots of gals are on-call for their jobs!") His one handshake with Garnet got him burned on the palm even before she had a chance to crush his phalanges, and since he survived that, Garnet dropped the matter. He was forbidden from entering the temple just like all the other humans, so he parked his van on the beach until beach patrol came around to kick him out.

It might have been the visit to the old barn. 

Garnet hadn't meant to eavesdrop that time either. Pearl had thought some of the swarm had escaped, and they had been especially drawn to Rose. Garnet kept watch on the roof instead of interrupting; allowing Rose some personal space was the least she could do.

"That's my aunt and uncle," Greg told Rose. "They were great inventors, explorers, and all around good people."

"Wonderful," said Rose. "I would have liked to meet them. We were busy at the time."

"Ah, right, right." There were random clatters and clangs as he moved things around.

"...you're being ambivalent again, Greg."

"Aw, you know— wait, maybe you don't. You're too amazing all your own. It's just... intimidating to be related to them."

"How so?"

"Like, every generation is supposed to improve on the last, don't you think? I look at all they did, all those incredible accomplishments, and I feel like a big waste of space."

"Now come on, Greg, you don't know you're a waste until it's too late."

He laughed heartily. "Ha, you're right! And then it's too late to worry, too!"

"Your aunt and uncle made the most of it." Rose sounded wistful. "Proportionately, humans can get more done in their short lives than the longest-lived Gem."

"You are so right. Hey... you're right! Maybe I've just gotta groove to my own time! Feel the beat! Go with the flow! And I'll find my amazing thing." There was a slightly louder crash. A metal pan was banged, once. "I already found an amazing lady to be with."

"Oh, Greg." Rose laughed. "I'm sure you'll find it. Don't let your ancestors' long shadows keep you down. When they did those things, they were great feats for the time. Now—"

"Now everybody does it. Or they could. Maybe — get this — I could do some little thing now, and generations into the future someone will think it's amazing. Huh? Whaddaya think? From the desk of Greg Universe."

Garnet got up from her perch so fast that some of the roof shingles snapped. She could feel Rose's gem reacting. She leaped away, and before she touched the ground, she heard Rose say, "Greg, would you consider—?"

*

Rose had been so hesitant to ask. "Pearl... would you help with this?"

Pearl melted instantly. "What is it, Rose? Anything."

"Steven needs a home. The shrine entrance was fine when we were the only ones using it. But he'll be half human. He'll need a roof over his head."

"Clothes, food, why of course, Rose. Did you have anything in mind?"

"Not particularly. A room with a good view, and the ocean breezes."

Pearl paced a single, tight circle. "I have an idea. Remember that stormy night after the country dance?"

"The car got stuck in the mud."

"Lost an axle, too, it was dreadful. We stayed with those nice people in that lovely house on the hill. Well, I happen to remember the name of the architect who built that house. It should be simple enough to acquire the plans, and adapt it to our environment and dimensions." Now it was Pearl who was shy. "Would that be... something you'd like?"

"Pearl, that would be _perfect_."

*

"You don't have to be perfect." Garnet held Pearl's waist, kissing the nape of her neck. Her hair was short and softer now that Steven had started exercising his tugging skills. 

Pearl slapped the counter, sending dish-soap suds everywhere. "Do you know how long it takes to prepare a balanced nutritious meal for a growing human boy! And by the time you finish, he's hungry again. And his diapers are never washed properly, do you grasp how disgusting that is, Amethyst?"

"His butt's still there," replied Amethyst.

Garnet glared. Not helping. "Pearl, what about pies? You like pies." Round and symmetrical and made with precisely measured ingredients. "Make some crust ahead of time and fill it with soft food. Then," she said, turning Pearl's head to kiss a sudsy cheek. "You can come play with us."

"You're just saying that so I'll play with you," Pearl muttered. Gradually, though, her shoulders began to slump against Garnet's massaging fingers. "Though I do like pies."

*

Rose had asked while they were patrolling one of the sanctuaries for a nocturnal gem-beast. "Amethyst, are hot dogs still what I think they are?"

Amethyst nearly snorted the nuts she was eating. "Like the food, not the sex talk?"

Even in the dark, Rose's blush could be seen. "The food."

"Yeah, they're sausages. It's meat bits ground up and stuffed in a case. Usually the meat bits nobody wants."

"The bits no one wants," Rose said thoughtfully. "Their purpose was changed."

"Turned into a delicious foo-ood!"

"Amethyst, keep the volume down," whispered Pearl.

Garnet was trailing behind. She'd heard all of it. Now she hurried to catch up.

*

"How long?"

Rose was sitting on the edge of the boardwalk, eating a row of ice cream cones from a contraption of Greg's. It was a hallmark of Beach City that no one found their presence especially strange. Still, Garnet wasn't going to sit down.

"The usual ten months, plus a little more," said Rose. "How's Pearl?"

Pearl had not taken the news well.

"She's resting. Her gem is fine."

"Pearl's not fine."

Garnet lifted a shoulder. What could she say? "She'll find something to occupy herself."

"Earth was the answer all along," Rose said. All around them, humans walked as they had always walked along a sandy shore: pointing at waves, buying fish, playing games, laughing, talking, crying over some temporary disappointment. "It's a place of transformation. The Rose Quartz gem doesn't work for our team any longer. The pattern has to change."

"We don't lose a gem," said Garnet tightly. "Just you."

Rose didn't say that she'd known this. Garnet had expected it, deep down; for now the others had yet to vent their frustrations on her for that. 

"Not entirely," said Rose. "Half of me will be in Steven. All you have to do is believe." Rose placed a hand on Garnet's leg. "You didn't believe in me when we first met."

Garnet looked down on her. "How do you know Greg doesn't have some harmful genetic mutation?"

"Oh, I'm sure he does," said Rose cheerfully. "That's why I need extra time."

Despite it all, Garnet had to stare. "You really do love that guy, don't you."

Rose nodded, and started on the next ice cream.

*

"Garnet! _Garnet._ "

She knew that call. Tucking in the sleeping Rose, Garnet went to answer the door. Amethyst was at the threshold, dancing from foot to foot. "Hey, I think I can get Pearl—"

"Which room?"

"Mine."

"Only," Garnet snapped her headband, still damp from street-dancing. (Her hair was silky fresh, though.) "Only if you have another bed."

Amethyst made a _pffft_ sound. Presuming this was affirmative, Garnet followed.

She did have another bed, but there was no Pearl.

"Bahhh, she got away!" Amethyst disappeared into the rubble.

Garnet sighed, cracking her bones, and made herself at home.

Thus Pearl was led into a waterbed-shaped trap. "...don't have time for this silly stuff, Amethyst!"

"When Steven's born, you'll feel even more guilty than you do now," said Garnet. The other two froze, their eyes wide. Amethyst picked up her own jaw. Garnet lay on her side on the bed. One knee up. The shades were off. 

Amethyst recovered first. "See, Pearl, Garnet's _here_."

Without moving a muscle, Garnet dismissed her clothes. "What are you going to do about it?" 

Amethyst carried Pearl before she fainted.

Of course, they started bickering before Amethyst was even fully undressed. "I know how you do it, you make those _noises_!" Pearl shuddered. "I'm not participating in this affair if you can't stop slurping, Amethyst."

"Suit yourself," Amethyst said. "More Garnet for me." She pounced on Garnet, making a point to wave her ass at Pearl.

Garnet quickly batted her ass down, but it was harder to avoid her eager lips. She sank back. Oh, she needed this. It had been an interminable few months, and it was going to get longer — a contradiction which felt quite real.

However, she could not ignore Pearl kneeling at the far edge of the bed, her arms against her chest and quivering with passionate outrage. Garnet got a handful of Amethyst's hair.

"Ow! Not the hair!"

"You're being rude," said Garnet. 

"But she's...! I'm gonna roll how I roll, Garnet."

Garnet sat up. "All right, no Garnet for either of you."

Pearl and Amethyst looked at each other. They had a hurried conference at the foot of the bed while Garnet casually stretched. 

*

Garnet didn't care for many objects, either way. But when it came down to divvying up Rose's things, she stepped out. She had been stepping out a lot.

After a day of collapsing some abandoned mines, she came back to find Rose waiting for her at the shrine's entrance.

"Here." Rose opened her hand.

"It's your puzzle box."

"I want you to have it."

"You know I travel light."

"That's why I'm giving it to you," said Rose with that smile of hers. "It's small."

Garnet looked at Rose. She was always radiant now, the excess energy of creation spilling from her gem. "How do you know this is going to work with your child?"

"It won't." Rose's expression was unlike any Garnet had ever seen from her. There was no sadness there. "The box answers to my voice alone. To my particular song." The song became the body; the shape made the song.

Garnet bubbled it up. Then she gathered Rose in, plunged her hand into her thick hair, and ruffled it thoroughly.

"What was that for," said Rose, laughing.

Garnet took a deep breath of Rose's scent. "You're traveling light, too."

As usual Rose understood. She wrapped her arms around Garnet. "I'll remember."

Into Rose's overwhelming tresses, Garnet whispered a secret. "I remember your song."

Rose whispered back. "I remember yours, too."

*

Amethyst coped with it in her own way.

"ITTY BITTY BABY." She danced around Rose, who was nestled on the couch. "We're gonna get an itty bitty baby! With delicious toesy wooe-sies!"

Rose laughed. "You may not eat him, dear."

"Bittle ickle woobie waybeeee!!" Amethyst plopped down and stared at Rose's stomach as though she could will Steven to pop out of the gem. "I dunno, he looks kind of big."

"That's just all the mechanical support," said Rose. "He's going to be quite small. I'm trying to get him big enough so he'll be able to support the weight of our gem."

Amethyst went north of the equator and flopped on Rose's chest. Rose gathered her close. "I'll miss you, Rosie. Can I squish him like I squish you?"

"When he's old enough, and only if you ask him first." Rose ruffled Amethyst's hair. "He's going to look at you like a mother, you know."

Amethyst popped up. "A mama? Me?"

Rose smiled. "Mmhm."

"Omigosh...! I'm gonna be a momma!" crowed Amethyst. "EEE! Everybody, did you hear that? I'm going to be a mom. I'm gonna be a mo-m, I'm gonna be a mo-mmm," she sang.

("Oh, heavens," muttered Pearl.)

"And," said Rose, tugging on the tips of her hair, "He's going to love you like a mother. So if he ever needs a squish from you—"

Amethyst followed the pull of her hair, her visible eye quite wide. "Rose, I don't know if I'm comfortable with that jazz," she said seriously.

Rose only glanced at Garnet for half a second before brushing Amethyst's hair behind her ear. "You two will figure it out, I'm certain."

"M'kay." Amethyst settled under Rose's chin. "He's not gonna look like Greg, is he? Or is he gonna look like you?"

"I don't know," said Rose wistfully. "That's my one regret. I'll never get to see what he looks like. How he grows."

"I'll look at him for you," said Amethyst earnestly.

"And we'll look after him as well," Pearl called from across the room.

Rose just smiled. "Don't forget," she whispered, "don't forget to let him look out for you, too."

*

Hesitantly, Greg stepped inside. Rose had always made it clear that the shrine was off-limits to him, though now he was setting foot in the new beach house. He turned around, looking at everything. "Pearl... I wanted to thank you. For all this."

"This? It was nothing. Rose had quite specific plans, all I did was draw up the blueprints."

"No, this place is great. This is... You didn't just build a house for Rose. You built a home for my son. For that I'll never forget you."

Garnet frowned. Greg Universe was a mortal human; if he was lucky, they wouldn't forget _him_. Then she looked over where Amethyst was making animal-shapes with her hair to tickle Steven's toes.

If the _Gems_ were lucky, Steven wouldn't forget them. So it was transformation after all. That was what Rose had been getting at.

*

Garnet gritted her teeth. The washing machine wasn't heavy. The cliff wasn't that steep. 

The whole thing was funny, but Garnet didn't feel like laughing yet.

"A little to the right," said Pearl. "No, my right."

They stood on the stone-and-crystal palm of their own fused form, positioning a washing machine for Steven's diapers. It had been over an hour. The sea crashed below them.

"The wind is good for drying clothes, but do you think our clotheslines will reach from finger to finger?" Pearl called up another simulation.

Garnet idly wondered how Amethyst was faring alone with Steven. And how soon before she mentioned that to Pearl.

"Garnet," said Pearl, startling her out of her reverie. She was more tired than she thought. "Garnet, this won't work."

That could be taken in a few ways. "What won't work?"

"This! The washing machine. _We're on the wrong hand._ " Pearl drew breath. "The wind's too strong on the seaward side, and the extension cord's going to be a hazard too. And without Rose's powers running through the shrine, the next storm will probably knock the rest of this side into the ocean."

Garnet paused. Pearl had her face turned away from her.

*

"Okay, now look!" 

Garnet could already see through Amethyst's hands, but she humored them. The bed was the same. But now a canopy of waterfalls sparkled around the perimeter — they had ascended through the temple into the center of Pearl's domain. 

"The perfect white noise machine," said Pearl, satisfied. Then she leaned over and gave Garnet a long kiss.

"No fair!" squealed Amethyst. Garnet opened her other arm, and gathered her in. 

Naturally Amethyst annexed her territory, hands literally everywhere. Garnet didn't mind, for now. Sometimes she just wanted a good long kiss. Taking a breath, she looked up at Pearl, stroking the small of her narrow back (as Amethyst languidly tasted the base of Garnet's neck).

Pearl's lips turned up, just so. Holding Garnet's chin, she kissed each of her eyelids — precisely, gently, as a falling petal of spring. "I suppose I'll have to take care of you when Rose leaves," she said.

Amethyst interrupted by nabbing Pearl by the shoulders. Pearl was ready, of course, eliding into her hungry kiss. Garnet would have to ask them just how often they practiced; she captured a few ringlets of Amethyst's hair, then crawled her broadened fingers down to points south. 

Amethyst twisted into a moan. "There's enough Garnet for everybody," she said happily, proceeding to push Garnet's knees apart.

Garnet smiled, and shaded Pearl's eyes as she took over kissing her. Pearl clasped her hand between both of hers, meshing their fingers. Meanwhile Garnet was rubbing her ankle along Amethyst's side, completely open to her unrelenting attacks. Pearl diligently collected her gasps. 

"Hmm," said Pearl, one eye opening. "Feet, eh?" She pointed a toe in Amethyst's direction and somehow brushed right against a nipple.

"Score," said Garnet as Amethyst jolted. Amethyst countered by dragging Pearl by her feet, resulting in an affronted shout and a little kicking and shrieking. 

Garnet simply captured them both. Pleased to be cornered, Amethyst rocked her hips back against Garnet while she continued to kiss Pearl. Garnet held them tight. It was fascinating enough to watch them twist and surge to their own rhythm, in her arms. Then Amethyst reached back to tug at Garnet's hip; a moment later Pearl twined her fingers on top of Amethyst's. Smirking into Pearl's mouth, Amethyst changed the density of her palm, and — with a move Garnet was sure she'd taught them — Pearl drew out a bone-shaking elastic wave that made Garnet fist the sheets. She caught the most lovely view of Pearl arcing up for breath before succumbing to them both.

After that round, Amethyst fluffed her hair out and climbed atop like a naked mountaineer. Her hair seemed to grow to blanket them, and her embrace was solid and warm. Garnet blew gently on Pearl until she was dry; her lax form was already clothed in a gauzy shift. Under the sound of falling water, Amethyst mumbled. "Mmph. Can we sleep here?"

Waiting outside were all the problems of the world, all the threats to the Crystal Gems.

This was their sacred shrine.

"Sure," said Garnet.

*

A few days after the birth, Greg returned with a battered manila envelope. Pearl turned up her nose at the chili stain, but accepted it. "That's all the legal stuff so you guys can have custody of Steven," Greg said. He wiped his brow. "The mayor owed me one for keeping his kid from rolling down a hill in a truck tire."

"Are you sure?" asked Pearl, though it was already decided.

"Rose did kind of entrust him to you—"

Amethyst bounced down from a ledge. "You mean she didn't think we'd squish his skull in?"

"—although that doesn't exactly inspire confidence," said Greg.

"I've caught up on the baby books, so he should be fine," Pearl assured him. "Greg, I'm just surprised. Rose Quartz chose you because she thought you would make a fine father for Steven."

"She did?" Greg looked even more gobsmacked than Amethyst.

Garnet looked over. "Through all the ages of the world, and in all humanity."

"No pressure," snickered Amethyst.

Greg stood frozen on the porch for several minutes before Pearl opened the door to check on him again. "Was there anything else?"

"Huh? Yeah! Yeah, I found this..." He hopped down the stairs, and began to drag a huge flat package duct-taped to a wooden pallet. Garnet came down and lifted it with one hand. "Thanks, Garnet. Whew. Anyway, I found that in our storage locker. One of those starving artist guys painted it for us, he's one of those photo-realism geniuses."

"Amethyst, don't...!" 

Despite Pearl blocking her, Amethyst had pounced on the package. She ripped it open.

They all leaned in.

It was a portrait of Rose.

She looked just about ready to open her eyes. 

It was very _her_.

"It won't fit in my van," said Greg. "I think you guys... I think Steven should have it."

"I know just the spot for it," said Pearl faintly. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "Would you like to come inside, Greg?" 

*

Rose and Garnet watched the sky turn to its sunset colors. In the distance, the glassy sea was limned with the wake of a pod of whales returning to familiar grounds — as they had always done for years and years.

"How can humans do it?" Garnet asked. "Their existence isn't guaranteed."

Rose had her hands folded on her growing belly. "There are many answers to that question. I think it's mainly love. Love and happiness. I told Pearl: we give. In the end we all give, whether we want to or not. Human beings have finite vessels. If they didn't love beyond themselves, they would wink out like a dying star. That was the secret," Rose said into the deepening evening. "I had to be happy to do it. We Gems have always known sacrifice. I had to welcome it. And I do."

"Are you happy?" The words tasted strange to Garnet.

"Are you?" Rose smiled. "Be happy, Garnet."

"That's not in my nature." Garnet paused. "But if you can evolve... I can try."

"It's all I want," said Rose, "That my sisters are happy. Besides, you'll know better than any of us I won't really be gone."

"That's why it'll be sad," said Garnet.

They looked upon each other, and laughed with perfect understanding. "Oh, Garnet, if you can feel the depths of sadness, remember that you're privy to at least _that much_ of the heights of happiness."

"Have you measured it?"

Rose did that look; it was the one Garnet couldn't resist. "I'm going to."

*

"Memories are just impressions on the mind," Pearl had explained. "Yet at the very same time as they're created, they mark that point in time and space. Since no two points are exactly, down-to-the-tiniest-quantum alike, it follows that no two memories are alike. And then you add variations between minds, and the fact that they're malleable, and you end up with a library full of books mixed up with their own card catalog."

"Like no two Gems are alike."

Amethyst had intently been picking at her navel. "Memories spill out of people, though, right?"

"Absolutely. Every one of them is informed by the person who experienced it."

"The way our songs arise from our gems. Our bodies from our songs."

"We got portioned out of the cosmos, yo," Amethyst contorted, trying to see herself. "But we're still us."

*

Garnet carried Pearl and the washing machine to their other hand.

*

They sat vigil around Steven's crib until he fell asleep.

"Is he asleep?" Amethyst asked after ten minutes, which got Pearl tied in knots trying to figure out if he was without waking him.

Garnet finally caught Pearl by the shoulders. At this rate Pearl really would wake him. And wear a hole in the floor they'd just built. "Babies sleep a lot."

"But Steven is not a normal baby. He's part Gem! What if he dreams of wings and flies away?"

"That would be kind of cool, actually," said Garnet.

"Hyeah," said Amethyst.

"He could, with this, and his own, and ohhh, all those centuries didn't you notice all the different ways babies can—!"

"All right, all right," Garnet relented. "We'll watch him."

Pearl blew out a breath. Garnet reached over to wipe her brow; she could remember when Pearl did not deign to sweat. "We'll stand guard _every night_." Pearl nodded firmly.

"We don't have to watch him till he's two-hundred, right?" said Amethyst. "Pearl?"

Steven slept and slept and slept. He was such a tiny scrap of flesh for such a hefty gem. It was almost like he was regenerating _in situ_ , except Garnet could see that he was dreaming. She'd never noticed that babies dreamed, before.

When he woke up, it was with a wail.

The first cry spun Amethyst and Pearl into a panic, and it kept going. Garnet grit her teeth with the effort of not punching a wall. However once they exhausted the finite list of reasons why Steven would be crying, Garnet also grew concerned.

"There's only one thing," Pearl said over his rhythmic klaxon, as she dipped into plié after plié.

There was a frantic banging at the door. Amethyst answered it, and nearly tripped Greg.

"Oh my gosh, I forgot the formula!" Greg yanked at what was left of his hair.

"I could probably figure out—" began Pearl.

"The baby formula! To feed him!"

Steven hiccuped through his tears.

Greg was running around like a wild chicken. "Oh geez, oh geez, I don't have any cash, the gig's not till Saturday...!"

Amethyst yanked on Garnet. "Uh, what day is it, 'cause—"

"The furniture auction isn't until next week. From Thursday." The house-building and all the related costs had drained their liquid finances. The non-liquid ones were still stuck in Amethyst's room.

Pearl whimpered.

Garnet peered at Steven. Such a small blob of flesh. He almost seemed weighed down by Rose's gem. "Can't he absorb our energy?"

"That might work," Pearl said weakly. Amethyst was hoisting her by the legs and she wasn't noticing. "But he has to accept it himself! He's a tiny human baby! What does he know about Gem powers?"

"Nuthin'," said Amethyst helpfully.

"He doesn't seem to have control over his physical body," Garnet observed.

"He'll starve!" screeched Pearl. The sound only made Steven cry harder.

Sound. The song. _Yes._

Amethyst popped up on the opposite side. "He doesn't even know who we are, huh?"

" _We._ "

The note echoed through the temple. Even while racked with sobs, Steven's chubby little hands reached up. Trying to feel for the shape of the song.

Pearl and Amethyst looked at each other. Their voices came together. " _Are the Crystal Gems._ "

Garnet thought of the little human who had shown her a statue. How her people made new songs of beings they knew nothing about. What else?

" _We'll always save the day._ "

" _And if you think we can't!_ " Amethyst pointed at Steven.

" _We'll always find a way,_ " they sang in unison.

The air around Steven began to glow. His tiny hands, the size of Garnet's fingertips, began to grasp the starlight—

_That's why the people of this world believe in—_

And he'd have to know who they were.

" _Garnet._ "

" _Amethyst!_ "

" _And Pearl..._ "

Steven's hands were slowly sinking as the tiny ball of light approached Rose's gem.

"And Steven," said Greg.

His gem.

"Uhm. Wow," said Greg. The Gems looked up at him. Even Pearl's hair was drooping. But Steven had quieted and was literally glowing. The gem would do the rest. "Sorry I interrupted that magic thingadoodle. And that I forgot the formula."

"It was perfect," said Pearl.

*

Some memories are held apart from the others.

The sound of Rose's voice.

Rose said: we'll figure it out.

Rose said: believe in Steven.

"Sure," said Garnet.

☆

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Abridged notes.)  
> Note that these are not exclusively European / American references. Ex. Beijing Opera, Kathakali, Kolbastı.  
> Garnet and Amethyst: ref. Brazil, Cossack revolts, Kabeliya, many many weapon dances, tinikling.   
> (ETA: Apologies for minor edits – discovered a version error.)   
>  
> 
>    
> ☆ (Amethyst found a fridge full of Rose's milk tucked in one of her cooling pools. She _had_ told her to keep it safe.)

**Author's Note:**

> Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;  
> I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
> 
> \- from _The Old Astronomer_ by Sarah Williams  
>     
> Many thanks to Brigdh and Frostfire for their time and attention for details which inspired me. Any mistakes very much mine! Overview from DK's The Atlas of World History (Black, J. ed), ISBN 978-0-7566-5348-4.   
> ETA: This fanwork is now open for **transformative works**! AKA remix! ☆ There's no need to include (or try to spell) my handle. ☆ AO3 provides a checkbox for these works in the _Associations_ section. ☆ As the creator I have a couple of requests. 1) Know thine audience — if the work needs a warning/label or related restrictions, please do your best to apply one. When linking, don't forget that *this* work comes with said warning/labels. 2) If your work is primarily about the Yuletide exchange, please contact me first. ☆ Have fun! 


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